The Jubilee Year of St Francis
Pope Leo XIV had announced that 2026 is a Jubilee Year of St Francis, to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death.
The patron saint of Italy, Saint Francis of Assisi was a poor man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit, and without a sense of self-importance.
Serious illness brought the young Saint Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life.
Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road.
Francis was inspired by his faith to become a humble workman spending much of his time helping to rebuild and repair abandoned chapels.
He gave up all his possessions, piling even his clothes before his father—who was demanding restitution for Francis’ “gifts” to the poor.
Saint Francis was, for a time, considered to be a religious fanatic, begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, evoking sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.
He had no intention of founding an order, but once it began, he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church’s unity.
Saint Francis of Assisi was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favour of the latter but always returned to solitude when he could.
He called animals “brother” or “sister,” and would go through the streets and byways, inviting everyone to join with him.
He encouraged all to embrace the overflowing goodness of God revealed in everything that exists and invite that embrace to change them.
Saint Francis is the founder of the Franciscan religious order.
He is the patron saint of those who care for plants and animals.
Francis died at the age of 44 in the year 1226 and was canonised by Pope Gregory the IX in 1228.
Ref: Franciscan Media
Prayer to Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago
went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace,
intercede for us before the Lord.
You recognised true peace in the Crucifix of San Damiano,
teach us to seek in Him the source of all reconciliation
that breaks down every wall.
You who, unarmed, crossed the lines of war
and misunderstanding,
give us the courage to build bridges
where the world raises up boundaries.
In this time afflicted by conflict and division,
intercede for us so that we may become peacemakers:
unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ.
Amen
Pope Leo 2026