On January 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in the Porziuncola will become the focal point of the solemn celebrations for the 8th Centenary of the Transitus of Saint Francis of Assisi (1226–2026).
Representatives of the Franciscan Families will be present:
Friar Massimo Fusarelli, OFM, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor;
Friar Carlos Alberto Trovarelli, OFM Conv, Minister General of the Conventual Friars Minor;
Friar Roberto Genuin, OFM Cap, Minister General of the Capuchin Friars Minor;
Tibor Kauser, OFS, Minister General of the Secular Franciscan Order;
Friar Amando Trujillo Cano, Minister General of the Third Order Regular, together with Sister Daisy Kalamparamban, President of the International Franciscan Conference of Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular.
Men and women consecrated according to the Franciscan Rule will gather in a shared presence that visibly expresses the unity and charismatic richness of the Franciscan Family throughout the world.
The rite will take place in the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, which houses, behind the Porziuncola, the Chapel of the Transitus, memorial of the final earthly moments of Saint Francis. Here, blind and marked by the stigmata, he wished to be laid “naked on the naked earth” on October 3, 1226, a supreme act of faith in the fatherhood of God and of acceptance of Sister Bodily Death.
The opening rite has been conceived as a symbolic and spiritual bridge between the Centenary of the composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025) and the Centenary of the Transitus of Francis (2026), drawing upon the final two stanzas of the Canticle, those dedicated to reconciliation and to Sister Bodily Death.
The principal figures of this gesture will be the Bishop of Assisi–Nocera Umbra–Gualdo Tadino and Foligno, Monsignor Domenico Sorrentino, and the Mayor of the city of Assisi, Valter Stoppini, in memory of the reconciliation between the Bishop and the Podestà of Assisi, sung by Francis as a prophecy of peace. They will enter the Basilica in procession carrying an unlit candle, a sign of humanity marked by conflict and fragility.
The procession will proceed to the Chapel of the Transitus, the place of Francis’s final earthly moments, where the candle will be lit from the Paschal Candle, symbol of the Risen Christ. From there, the light will be carried to the six side stations of the Basilica, each entrusted to one of the six branches of the Franciscan Family.
Each station will be dedicated to a theme drawn from the Testament of Saint Francis, which constitutes the foundational text of the opening rite as the bequeathing of his final spiritual wishes. Each stage will include: the proclamation of a text from the Franciscan Sources or the Gospel; a brief reflection by a Minister General; and a symbolic gesture or the listening to a testimony, in order to make the Franciscan message relevant to the world today.
For the occasion, the oldest known painting depicting Saint Francis of Assisi, preserved at the Porziuncola Museum, will be exceptionally displayed in the Basilica. Created by the so-called Master of Saint Francis (mid-13th century), it portrays the Saint with clearly visible stigmata, an expression of his complete and definitive conformatio Christi.
The image is believed to have been painted on a wooden plank used to receive and protect Francis’s body immediately after his death, giving it not only iconographic value but also a profoundly relic-like and testimonial significance. The work will be exhibited in accordance with the strictest conservation measures, under the supervision of the Curator of the cultural heritage of the Seraphic Province.
The Transitus stands at the culmination of the great Franciscan jubilee journey which, from 2023 to 2026, has retraced the final years of the life of the Poor Man of Assisi: from the approval of the Rule and the Christmas of Greccio (2023), to the gift of the Stigmata (2024), to the composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025). The final stanza of the Canticle - “Praised be You, my Lord, for our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living person can escape” - is the true key for interpreting this Centenary.
The witness of Francis at the moment of death, singing while surrounded by his brothers, is a legacy of reconciliation and a prophecy of fraternity: only a free and humble heart can welcome death as a friend. All—sons and daughters of Saint Francis, Christian and civil communities, young and old—are invited to join in this great spiritual jubilee.
