To all the Friars Minor of the Order
To the contemplative Sisters of our Family
To the Sisters of the TOR and to the brothers and sisters connected to our Order
Rome, September 24, 2026
Dear brothers and sisters:
May the Lord give you peace!
We write to you as the feast of Saint Francis approaches, during this important year in which we remember the eight hundredth anniversary of his death.
For four years we have been preparing for and celebrating these special moments. You’ll recall that we began in 2023, celebrating the 8th centenary of the approval of our Rule while commemorating the Nativity scene that Francis created at Greccio. The following year, 2024, it was the anniversary of the Sacred Stigmata, and so we contemplated that unique grace, the wounds of love that Our Lord shared with Francis 800 years earlier on Mount LaVerna. In 2025, we meditated on the Canticle of Brother Sun, completed in 1225, and we were blessed to unearth even more of the richness and wisdom of this simple but beautiful poem. And now it is time, this year, to celebrate his Transitus, the 800th anniversary of the “passing over” of Saint Francis, the culminating moment of a life lived in intimate union with Jesus Christ, the “passing over” of a man who had lived with a deep love for the Lord's paschal mystery.
Throughout these four years, all over the world we have experienced such beautiful moments of fraternal celebration and collaboration among so many members of our Franciscan Family. We have rediscovered that it is Saint Francis himself who is the bond that unites us, even in our diversity, as we strive to live out our unique charism. We can now joyfully proclaim that these celebrations have already borne fruit, our coming together as one family is, in fact, the “first fruits” of what we have been about these last four years!
During the first months of this year, 2026, we also had the exceptional experience of viewing the mortal remains of Francis as they were exposed to the public faithful. Through his very bones, we once again heard his call to be truly lesser, instead of striving to be greater in this world. This year, Holy Mother Church also wanted to gift our entire Franciscan Family with a particular grace, granting a plenary indulgence for all our churches who celebrate this special centenary.
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