In Assisi, cardinals, friars celebrate 800th anniversary of saint’s death

On Oct. 4 in Assisi, Italy, Archbishop Felice Accrocca of the Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, carries a relic in a procession outside the Basilica of St. Francis as cardinals, friars and thousands of pilgrims join in the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis. (OSV News photo/courtesy Sala Stampa Sacro Convento Assisi)

ROME (OSV News)—At the stroke of midnight on Oct. 4, church bells tolled across the Italian hilltown of Assisi to mark the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ death.

The Oct. 4 feast of the “the Little Poor Man of Assisi” was the pinnacle event amid a yearlong jubilee celebration, which began with the historic exposition of relics of him for public veneration.

The feast day celebrations began on Oct. 3 with a night procession and a solemn commemoration of the “Transitus” (“passage”), the traditional Franciscan prayer service in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels marking St. Francis’ transition into eternal life. The basilica houses the chapel where St. Francis died on the night of Oct. 3, 1226.

About 3,000 people took part in the procession on the eve of the beloved saint’s feast day, singing hymns and voicing prayers as they retraced the route made by St. Francis’ coffin in 1226, walking about 2 miles uphill through Assisi from the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels to the Basilica of St. Francis where he is currently buried.

The walk ended with a midnight Mass celebrated by Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, the pontifical legate for the papal basilicas of Assisi.

Reflecting on the meaning of St. Francis’ transitus, Cardinal Artime told the congregation, “To live well means learning, day after day, to die to ourselves so that we may belong ever more fully to Christ.

“The things we owned, our achievements, the image we projected of ourselves” will not matter in the end, the cardinal said. “Love will remain. Christ will remain. Francis dies poor, but he dies rich in the only wealth that never dies: the Lord.”

The following morning, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, presided over a packed Mass in the basilica attended by Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella. Assisi’s Bishop Felice Accrocca and Cardinal Artime were among the concelebrants.

In his homily, Cardinal Zuppi said that St. Francis continues to teach us to be peacemakers, bringing the gift of peace “wherever there is violence, hatred and misunderstanding.” The way forward when “we are tempted and seduced by a vulgar, overbearing and deceptive culture of power,” the archbishop of Bologna added, is to disarm “our hands and our hearts.”

Following the Mass, Italy’s president addressed the crowd gathered in front of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

“In these times marked by senseless and cruel wars, by so much violence, manipulation and arrogance, as Leo XIV said a few days ago, our hope is that Francis’ sun may illuminate the world, convert minds hardened by hatred, and point the way toward peace, hope and a serene, fraternal life together,” Mattarella said.

The celebrations concluded on the evening of Oct. 4 with solemn vespers and a procession led by Bishop Accrocca, who imparted a blessing of Italy and the world from the small dome of the Basilica of

St. Francis of Assisi using the Chartula relic of St. Francis. The Chartula is a small, fragile piece of parchment written on directly by St. Francis of Assisi in September 1224, two years before his death. The parchment contains the “The Praises of God” on one side and “The Blessing for Brother Leo” on the reverse.

The Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV celebrating the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi will continue until Jan. 10, 2027. †