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This year marks the 800th anniversary of the passing of St. Francis of Assisi from his earthly life to eternal life in Heaven.

Pope Leo, in commemorating this historic milestone, exhorts us that “this Year of Saint Francis urge us all, each according to our own possibilities, to imitate the Poverello1 of Assisi, to mould ourselves as much as possible on the model of Christ, to not let the intentions of the Holy Year just passed be in vain: may the hope that saw us as pilgrims now be transformed into zeal and fervor of active charity.”

The commemoration of this Jubilee year runs from January 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027 and includes a grant by the Holy Father, through the Apostolic Penitentiary, of a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions in the form of suffrage for the souls in Purgatory.

We can receive this plenary indulgence by by “visiting, in the form of a pilgrimage, any Franciscan conventual church or place of worship anywhere in the world dedicated to Saint Francis or connected to him for any reason, and there devoutly follow the Jubilee rites or spend at least a reasonable period of time in pious meditation and raise prayers to God so that, following the example of Saint Francis, feelings of Christian charity towards their neighbors and authentic vows of harmony and peace among peoples may spring forth in their hearts, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare and all the Saints of the Franciscan Family.

The “usual conditions” the Holy Father speaks of are the following:

  1. Sacramental confession to be in God’s grace (in the eight days before or after
  2. Participation in Mass and Eucharistic Communion;
  3. To visit in the form of a pilgrimage any Franciscan conventual church or place of worship dedicated to St. Francis anywhere in the world (that includes our own St. Margaret Mary Parish!), where one renews one’s profession of faith, through the recitation of the Creed, to reaffirm one’s Christian identity;
  4. The recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, to reaffirm the dignity of children of God, received in Baptism;
  5. To pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, to reaffirm belonging to the Church, whose foundation and visible centre of unity is the Roman Pontiff;

And what are the intentions of the Holy Father, you may ask… They vary by month, and can be found in this link published by the US Bishops Conference: https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2026

1 – Poverello means “little poor man” in Italian