On 2 August of each year, the “Pardon of Assisi” is celebrated in Assisi in the Church of St Mary of the Angels. This church is also known as the Portiuncula, which means “little portion of land”.
St Mary of the Angels is conceivably the most important Franciscan sanctuary in Assisi for the memories of Francis that it contains. He was so fond of the little church that he once said to the brothers, “If anyone should evict you from one door, return through another one.”
Francis lived here with the brothers in community, and he considered it his home base. After St. Clare left her family on Palm Sunday 1212, she met Francis in the Portiuncula where he gave her the tonsure. Finally, here Francis died on 3 October 1226.
According to the traditional account, in July 1216, Francis was praying in the Portiuncula when he had a vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary surrounded by a host of angels.
Jesus asked him what grace he desired, to which Francis replied that he desired the complete forgiveness of all sins for everyone who came to his beloved little church. Jesus replied that he should go to the pope, since he was the Vicar of Christ, to request such an indulgence.
Francis went to Perugia, where Pope Honorius III had just been elected pontiff, and made his request that anyone who journeyed to St Mary of the Angels would receive a plenary indulgence – a full pardon for their sins.
Such a request was unprecedented. There were only a few ways to receive a plenary indulgence at that time – by making a pilgrimage to one of the great basilicas in Christendom such as St Peter’s in Rome, St James in Compostela, St Mary Magdalene in France, or by making the “queen of all pilgrimages” to the Holy Land. It was inconceivable to attach a plenary indulgence to a wayside country church.
Perhaps miraculously, Pope Honorius granted Francis his request. However, he limited the indulgence to just one day a year – 2 August.
The indulgence was initially limited to the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in Assisi for 2 August. However, over time, the indulgence was extended to all Franciscan churches around the world on that day. Today, the indulgence is available in Assisi any day of the year.
The “Pardon of Assisi” can be obtained from the evening of 1 August until midnight on 2 August. To obtain the plenary indulgence, the faithful should
go to confession (a week before or after 2 August)
receive the Eucharist (a week before or after 2 August)
recite the Creed and the Our Father, and pray for the intentions of the Pope
visit a Franciscan church or any parish church on 1 or 2 August to honour Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula
“A chance to follow in St Francis’ steps”: Eight centuries after the Italian holy man visited Egypt, his relics make a return.
When Saint Francis made his renowned journey to Egypt in 1219, he was wearing the humble tunic which went on to become characteristic of his followers.
Now, 800 years later, that tunic – or part of it – has made a return to the country.
A piece of the garment – which counts as a second-class relic of the saint – arrived in Cairo on the 23rd May. It then made its way to Alexandria, and will also visit Minya, Assiut, Qena and Luxor before returning to Italy on the 2nd June.
Following in St Francis’ steps
The relic belongs to Franciscan friars from the Italian region of Tuscany, who are bringing it to various countries in celebration of the 800th anniversary of St Francis’ stigmata.
Speaking to Vatican News, Anthony Amen, a youth representative for the Egyptian Franciscans, said that the event aimed to “bring back the spirituality of Saint Francis”.
He added that he hoped the encounter with the relics would inspire the Church in Egypt to “follow in St Francis’ steps”.
The Saint and the Sultan
St Francis’ visit to Egypt is now best remembered for his encounter with Sultan al-Kamel, who was at the time the ruler of Egypt.
In the midst of the Crusades, the saint travelled behind enemy lines to meet with the Muslim leader, and remained with him for several days.
Amen said that the visit of the relic was “always a reminder for us to take the initiative to sustain dialogue between us and the other.”
He said that relations between Christians and Muslims in Egypt had taken a “huge step forward” in the past ten years, during the leadership of President al-Sisi.
And, he said, much progress had also been made just in the past couple of years precisely because of the 800th anniversary of Francis’ encounter with the Sultan.
Dialogues took place, he said, between leaders and youth representatives from the Catholic Church and Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, one of the most prestigious centres of Muslim learning worldwide.
“From that moment,” Amen said, “we entered a new phase in interreligious dialogue between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.”
Amid celebrations for the eighth centenary of St. Francis of Assisi’s stigmata, hundreds of young people gather in Florence until Sunday to look at the future through the eyes of the great saint.
Young people gathered in Florence, Italy, are trying to fully perceive the legacy of St. Francis.
They are doing this through dialogue with the other generations.
At least a thousand young people have come from all over Italy to explore various themes, related to St. Francis, amid the celebrations for the eighth centenary of his stigmata.
This was seen in the opening evening during the encounter with Roberto Vecchioni, who met with Davide, a young singer-songwriter, and two girls from Rondine – Cittadella della pace, one Ukrainian and the other Russian.
The two young women shared their great pain for the war that has been going on between their countries for over two years.
For a sustainable safeguard of Creation
“To save life on earth we need an ecological conversion,” Stefano Mancuso, professor at the University of Florence and founder of plant neurobiology, appealed from the stage of the Francesco Live event.
The Francesco Live event is the meeting of young people who want to seek answers, following the testimony of the Poor Man of Assisi.
On Friday, Florence’s Basilica of the Holy Cross was packed with young people who participated in the event.
The first plenary session was dedicated to integral ecology, in which life, Mr. Mancuso went on to explain, “is a precious good, and yet,” he added, “the quantity of life on the planet is decreasing: the number of animals on earth has halved in the last fifty years, among mammals, almost all of them are now humans and animals that are part of the human food chain.”
A planet distorted by man
Chiara Giaccardi, professor of sociology at the Catholic University of Milan, also emphasised the weight of the human footprint on Earth. “We are in the era of the anthropocene, man has the power to distort the planet.”
Faced with this, she said, the answer lies in being generative.
‘”Science tells us that everything is relationship, and relationship is generative, it gives birth to fruits of the future. Freedom is not the absence of ties: it is making something exist that is not yet there. It is bringing something new into the world, in a shared way.”
This represents the opposite of individualism, which, according to the sociologist, “unties us from everything and ends up making us all the same. This is not our anthropological vision. Every genius needs to be fertilised in order to create. Everything we do has an impact on society and nature.”
Climate crisis and migration
The plenary, coordinated by Michela Lazzeroni, professor of economic-political geography at the University of Pisa, also gave voice to Giorgio Brizio.
The 22-year-old young man, student of International Development and Cooperation Sciences, also deals with climate crisis and migrations.
Also on stage was Friar Francesco Zecca, a Friar Minor from the Salento Province, who has been committed for years to justice, peace and the protection of creation, both in the city where he works, Taranto, and in the OIKOS project.
OIKOS is the Franciscan network of the Mediterranean, which during Francesco Live brought to Florence some young people from countries bordering the ‘Mare nostrum‘ and who for days, in the Sala Giunta of Palazzo Vecchio, have been discussing many issues concerning the present and future of this area of the world.
The economy was the central theme of the event held on Saturday.
