The Curator’s Corner:

The 800th Anniversary of the Death of Saint Francis of Assisi (1226-2026)

Two years after Saint Francis had received the stigmata- that is, the bodily wounds, which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion, in the case of Saint Francis, in the hands and feet. And, twenty years after the beginning of his religious life, Francis asked to be brought to the church named St. Mary of the Portiuncula, so that he might yield up his spirit where he had first received the spirit of Grace. Francis had himself placed naked upon the naked ground. He waited without fear for his triumph, and said to his brothers: "I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what you are to do."

He spent the few days that remained before his death in praise, teaching his companions whom he loved so much and whom he called to his side to praise Christ with him. He himself, in as far as he was able, broke forth in this psalm: "I cry to the Lord with my voice; to the Lord, I make loud supplication."

He extorted his brothers with fatherly affection to love God. He spoke a long time about practicing patience and poverty, setting the counsels of the Holy Gospel ahead of all other prescriptions. Then, he stretched out his arms in the form of a cross, because he loved that sign, and blessed all his brothers, both present and absent, in the power and the name of the Crucified. 

He also invited all creatures to praise God, and exhorted them to love God. He exhorted death itself to give praise, and going joyfully to meet it, he invited it to make its lodging with him, "Welcome," he said, "my sister death."

When he finished his inspiring admonition, he told his brothers to bring a book of the Gospels and asked to have the Gospel of St. John read to him from the place that begins: "Before the feast of the Passover." He was recalling that most holy supper which the Lord celebrated as his last supper with his disciples.

Then, when many brothers had gathered about whose father and leader he was, and while they were standing reverently at his side, awaiting his blessed death and happy end, his most holy soul was freed from the body and received into the abyss of God's glory, and Francis fell asleep in God.  It was the evening of October 3, 1226, when Saint Francis died...

 To be continued…..