Transitus of St. Francis 2024

On October 3rd in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, as every year, Solemn Vespers was celebrated in commemoration of the Transitus of our Father St. Francis. Despite the rainy day, thousands of people gathered around the Portiuncula, the chapel where the Franciscan fraternity was born and where the “Poverello of Assisi” took his last breath.

The celebration was attended by a number of authorities, both religious and civil: bishops from different Italian regions (especially from Sicily), the General Ministers of the First Order, including our own Br. Roberto Genuin, representatives of the civil institutions of Assisi and the region of Sicily, religious men and women of the Franciscan family, and more than five thousand faithful. This year it was Sicily’s turn to pay homage to the patron of Italy by offering the oil that will keep lit throughout the year the lamp that burns in front of the tomb of St. Francis. 

The celebration of vespers was led by the Most Reverend Corrado Lorefice, Metropolitan Archbishop of Palermo and vice president of the Sicilian Bishops' Conference and was held in an atmosphere of vibrant and deep spirituality recalling the last moments of St. Francis on October 3, 1226. During the celebration, the psalms were sung solemnly, and with attentive recollection, Chapter XIV of St. Bonaventure's Major Legend was read, which narrates the most important events of the evening of the Transitus and begins by recalling that two years had already passed since the impression of the stigmata whose eighth centenary we are celebrating this year.

Archbishop Lorefice, in his homily, recalled the double undressing of St. Francis, the first before the Bishop of Assisi, which made him aware of being a creature and son of the Father who is in heaven; and the second shortly before his death, a sign of the total surrender of his body to God and his brothers and sisters, to be returned to the earth and enter into the paternal embrace of the Creator. The Archbishop of Palermo then summarized the moment celebrated, almost as if to summarize the Franciscan charism and our mission in the world: “The memory of the transitus of Francis, reawakens us to our being mortal creatures, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters: creatures, not Creator, mortals not eternal; beloved children, not slaves; brothers and sisters, not enemies catapulted into the worldwide battlefield. Brothers and sisters of the one Father who affirms the Earth as a fraternal 'Common Home' fragrant with love and peace, as a 'fruitful garden' with the evergreen forest of Life at its center.”

The celebration ended in a joyful atmosphere and a spirit of fraternity that extended to the vigil with the youth of Sicily. Sister Rain, as Francis called it, accompanied the evening’s celebration and the night vigil.

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