Transitus service brings together Franciscans and others to mark St. Francis' passage to eternal life

As they did in countries around the world, Franciscans in Maine gathered on the evening of October 3 to celebrate the transitus of St. Francis of Assisi, his passage from earthly life into everlasting life.

“This celebration is not only a memorial, a remembering of one who has gone before us, it is also a celebration of the spirit of St. Francis in our midst today, in each of us who follow in his footsteps,” said Irene Frye, OFS, minister of the St. Francis of Assisi Fraternity in Lewiston.

“We celebrate the love that he had for his brothers, and we commemorate the time that he spent with them as he died and then rose to eternal life with Jesus,” said Daniel Spofford, OFS, minister of the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Region of the Secular Franciscan Order. “He very much lived his life like Christ did on earth, bringing people to God the Father, and so we celebrate that.”

Bishop James Ruggieri, who is a Secular Franciscan, presided at the service, which was held at the Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul in Lewiston. Nearly 100 people attended including Franciscan sisters, members of the Order of Franciscan Seculars, and Father Michael Sevigny, OFM, Cap., a Capuchin Franciscan.

During the service, the faithful recited St. Francis’ “Praises of God,” heard a passage recollecting St. Francis’ final moments on earth, listened to a recitation of St. Francis’s Canticle of Creation, paused in silent prayer, and joined in signing hymns.

Speaking to those gathered, Bishop Ruggieri recalled some of the sufferings that St. Francis endured in his life but also said that Francis found what he was looking for when he found Christ.

“He lived, breathed, and embraced the joy of the Gospel. Everything, everything about Christ: the joy: the suffering, and the hope,” the bishop said. “The Secular Franciscans have sort of an adage: the Gospel to life and life to the Gospel. I think that is really what it's all about…bringing the Gospel to life throughout lives, in our life, and bringing our lives to the Gospel.”

Celebrating the transitus of St. Francis has long been part of Franciscan spirituality. Although it commemorates the moment of his death in 1226, it is considered a time of celebration because it is when St. Francis met the God he loved so dearly and whom he had served so faithfully.

“He called death ‘sister death,’ so I think in that sense he was waiting for that step. Death was that step to eternal life. He really lived his whole life preparing for that,” said Sister Christianna Hamman, FSE. “So, for us, as Franciscans, it's a way that we can recount that and bring that to mind, and I think bring to mind Francis' love for the Church, for the Eucharist, for the humility and poverty that he lived with and to reignite that desire in ourselves to live into those more deeply as well.”

At the conclusion of the prayer service, the congregation processed outside the basilica where the bishop offered St. Francis’s blessing of the city, praying “Father of mercy, remember, I entreat you, the abundance of good things that you have shown it, and may it ever be the dwelling place of those who will glorify your blessed name for ever and ever.”