Honoring the Jubilee Year of St. Francis during St. Michael’s Lent

Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto, c. 1500. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

October 3^rd will mark 800 years since the death of St. Francis of Assisi. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a Jubilee Year of St. Francis from January 10, 2026, to the following January. The fact that the entire Church is invited to enter this Jubilee shows us just how important the witness of St. Francis remains as a man truly conformed to Christ-crucified and dedicated to living the Gospel to the full.

The Solemnity of the Assumption (August 15) also begins a holy season practiced by St. Francis called St. Michael’s Lent. Francis practiced five periods of increased prayer and fasting throughout the year, including this one leading up to Michaelmas Day (now the feast of the Archangels) on September 29^th. It was during one of his retreats to Mount Alvira two years before his death that he received the stigmata on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14).

St. Michael’s Lent offers us a perfect opportunity to enter into the Jubilee leading up to St. Francis’s feast day on October 4^th. I’d like to suggest several ways we can enter into the Jubilee and fulfill the requirements for the indulgence during this Franciscan season.

The Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel, described how to obtain a plenary indulgence for the Jubilee:

“To obtain the plenary indulgence during the Year of Saint Francis, certain specific conditions indicated by the Church must be fulfilled: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, certain prayers according to the intentions of the pope, interior detachment from sin and the performance of certain works, such as a pious pilgrimage to Franciscan churches, participation in Jubilee celebrations, prayer and meditation in the Franciscan spirit, as well as daily acts of charity and humility that express the spirituality of Saint Francis.”

St. Michael’s Lent would be a perfect time to make a pilgrimage in honor of St. Francis. A good place to start would be Mother Angelica’s beautiful Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament outside of Hanceville, Alabama. But there are many other wonderful possibilities in the United States, such as the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land near the National Basilica in Washington, DC, which testifies to Francis’s great love for the Holy Land with its replicas of the holy sites.

There are others connected to the mission of Franciscans in America, like the Carmel Mission in California where St. Junípero Serra is buried, the National Shrine of St. Francis in the city named after him, San Francisco (which will host his relics this fall), and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis in Santa Fe, NM (a city named for his faith as the city’s full name is Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis).

Since we are marking the anniversary of his death, which occurred next to his beloved chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli, known as the Portiuncula, it would also be fitting to visit the replica of the Portiuncula at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.

More locally, one can also make pilgrimage to one of the many churches named for St. Francis of Assisi or entrusted to his brothers, the Capuchins, in the Archdiocese of Denver, like St. Francis of Assisi Church, Longmont; St. Francis of Assisi Church, Weldona; Annunciation Church, Denver; or St. Patrick Oratory, Denver. There are also several other options in other dioceses within an hour's drive from locations in the Archdiocese of Denver, like St. Francis of Assisi Church, Castle Rock; St. Francis of Assisi Church, Colorado Springs; and St. Francis of Assisi Church, St. Francis, Kansas.

Finally, the beatification of Franciscan missionaries martyred within the modern State of Georgia will take place within the Jubilee on October 31^st in Savannah.

As a spiritual practice each day for St. Michael’s Lent, we can pray the prayer that Pope Leo proposed for the Jubilee:

Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace, intercede for us with the Lord.

In the Crucifix of San Damiano you recognized true peace, 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 erects borders. In this time plagued by conflict and division, intercede sothat we may become peacemakers:unarmed and disarming witnesses of thepeace that comes from Christ.

Amen.

There are also wonderful books to read throughout St. Michael’s Lent. For an engaging overview of St. Francis’s life, you could pick up Louis de Wohl’s novel, The Joyful Beggar (Ignatius Press). For a more traditional biography, there’s Father Augustine Thompson’s Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Cornell University Press). Or to hear his own words, there is Francis and Clair: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality). The Augustine Institute’s formed.org also offers a wonderfully produced audio drama, Brother Francis: The Barefoot Saint of Assisi.

Finally, to imitate St. Francis’s penitential spirit and the stigmata he received during St. Michael’s Lent, we can take up some daily disciplines, such as fasting, abstinence from meat and alcohol, and pulling back from media. Exodus 90 offers men a guided experience of St. Michael’s Lent under the spiritual guidance of Father Columba Jordan, CFR, as well as a practice beloved to St. Francis: keeping a night vigil. This entails waking up for a holy hour at 2 a.m. Friday mornings, but something similar could be done by anyone at any point in the night through a local Adoration chapel. Praying like this in the night breaks us out of our ordinary routine, puts God first and offers a ready opportunity to encounter God. The indulgence makes mention of charitable works, which call us to a sacrificial encounter with those in need in imitation of Francis’ great love for the poor.

St. Francis was an extraordinary saint because he did things that others only dreamed of. Many of us want to follow Christ unreservedly, but we give in to fear and distraction. Imitating St. Francis, especially in his prayer, mortification and charity, can help us to follow the true Master, Christ, more fully. This Jubilee Year, and especially St. Michael’s Lent, invites us to take up that invitation and act upon it now.