The Death of Francis

Two years, then, after the impression of the Sacred Stigmata, that is, in the twentieth year after his conversion, he was attacked by many infirmities; and as a rock struck and tried by many blows, or as a true stone, which was to be built into the edifice of the heavenly Jerusalem, or as some fair work which, by the force of the hammer of many tribulations, was to be brought to a perfect form, he ordered the brethren to carry him to St. Mary of the Portiuncula, that where he had received the spirit of grace he might give up the spirit of life. Having, therefore, been brought thither, and desiring to give a true proof to all men that he had no longer anything in common with the world in that grievous and painful sickness, he laid aside his habit, and laid himself prostrate on the bare earth, that in the last hour in which the enemy would attack him with all his fury he might wrestle naked with his naked adversary. Lying thus on the earth, with his face raised according to his custom to heaven, and intent upon its glory, with his left hand he covered the wound on his right side, and said to his brethren: “I have done my part; may Christ teach you to do yours!”

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The hour of his departure being at hand, he commanded all the brethren who were in that place to be called to him, and comforted them with consoling words concerning his death, exhorting them with fatherly affection to the divine love. He spoke to them at length concerning patience, poverty, and faithful obedience to the Holy Roman Church, preferring the Holy Gospel to all other laws and institutions. And as all the brethren surrounded him, he extended his hands over them in the form of a cross, crossing his arms in the form of that sign which he had ever loved; and so he blessed all the brethren, whether present or absent, in the Name and in the power of the Crucified. Then he added: “Farewell, my children, abide in the fear of the Lord, and ever persevere therein. And when any temptation or trouble approaches you say: Blessed are they who persevere in those things which they have begun. And now I go to God, to Whose grace I commend you all.”

When he had finished these loving admonitions, this man, most dear to God, commanded that the Book of the Gospels should be brought to him, and that the place of the Gospel of St. John should be read to him which begins with these words: Ante diem festum paschæ. And then, as best he could, he broke forth into that verse of the psalm, Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi, voce mea ad Dominum deprecatus sum, and so continued repeating the psalm until he came to the verse, Me exspectant justi, donec retribuas mihi. All these mysteries being then accomplished in him, his most holy soul being set free and absorbed in the abyss of the divine glory, the blessed man slept in the Lord.

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Certain birds which love the light, and have a great horror of darkness, at the hour of the holy man’s transit from earth, which was the time at which twilight is wont to set in, came in great multitudes over the roof of the house, and flew round and round it joyfully for a long time together, giving clear and joyous testimony to the glory of the Saint who had been wont to invite them to sing the praises of God.