One of the beautiful traditions that will no doubt be kept by Franciscans and others throughout the world is the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi, observed on the evening of October 3. It commemorates the saint’s passing from this earthly life into eternal life with God. The word Transitus means “passing over,” expressing the Christian hope that death is not an end, but a passage into the fullness of life in Christ.
Francis approached his death with the same simplicity and trust that had characterized his entire vocation. Having embraced poverty, humility, and the Gospel, he desired above all to conform himself to Christ. As his earthly life drew to its close, Francis asked to be placed upon the bare earth, returning to the simplicity he had loved throughout his life.
He welcomed death as “Sister Death,” whom he had already praised in his Canticle of the Creatures. Before his death, Francis also gave his final blessing as a lasting sign of his love and spiritual fatherhood.
The Transitus invites us to contemplate our own mortality with Christian hope. Like St. Francis, we are called to live each day turned toward Christ, trusting that our final passage will lead us into the eternal joy of God’s presence.
This is a brief account of his final hours:
“On the eve of his death, the saint, in imitation of his Divine Master, had bread brought to him and broken. This he distributed among those present, asking God’s blessing upon Bernard of Quintaville, his first companion, and Elias, his vicar, as well as all the others in order. “I have done my part,” he said next, “may Christ teach you to do yours.” Then wishing to give a last token of detachment and to show he no longer had anything in common with the world, Francis removed his poor habit and lay down on the bare ground, covered with a borrowed cloth, rejoicing that he was able to keep faith with his Lady Poverty to the end. After a while he asked to have read to him the Passion according to St. John, and then in faltering tones he himself intoned Psalm cxli. At the concluding verse, ‘Bring my soul out of prison’, Francis was led away from earth by ‘Sister Death’, in whose praise he had shortly before added a new strophe to his ‘Canticle of the Sun’.”
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ALLELUIA, Alleluia. Francis, poor and humble, enters heaven rich and is welcomed with celestial hymns. Alleluia.
Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
O God, you granted our blessed Father Francis the reward of everlasting joy: grant that we, who celebrate the memory of his death, may at last come to the same eternal joy; through Christ our Lord. Amen.