For information on the Feast of Pardon and more please visit St. Leonard’s website

St. Francis and the Feast of Pardon

The Feast of Pardon, as it is called in Italy, always attracts thousands of visitors and pilgrims to Assisi. According to legend and later historical fragments, St. Francis of Assisi persuaded Pope Honorius III to grant a plenary indulgence to all those who visited the Portiuncula on August 2 and confessed their sins.

It was on this date that the little church was dedicated under the patronage of St. Mary of the Angels. The Portiuncula, or Little Portion, is the cradle of the Franciscan Order, established as its headquarters by St. Francis himself. The Feast of Pardon has been celebrated there with great ceremony through the centuries. Knowing that the basilica, damaged by the 1997 earthquake, will still be open for this year’s feast reminds me once again of the blessings I received there just a few years ago.

Immediately after the early morning Mass, another friar and I set out from Rome for Assisi. For the first time, I would celebrate this feast of reconciliation in the city of Francis. In Assisi, Francis himself had experienced the pardon of the Lord, proclaimed God’s goodness and invited others to conversion at the Portiuncula. We planned to visit the little chapel within the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in the valley below Assisi and spend the rest of the day in the city.

Shortly after nine a.m. we arrived at our destination. The small chapel, one of the three churches repaired by the young Francis, had been all but abandoned in the wooded plain below Assisi in the 13th century. Now it is preserved in the center of the large basilica. That sacred place which was so dear to Francis that he asked the brothers never to leave it, that holy ground where Francis asked to be brought as he lay dying, continues to call countless pilgrims to prayer and to celebrate the Feast of the Pardon of Assisi.

I knelt on the stone floor and, with head bent, prayed in silence. As I emerged from the chapel and walked toward my friend, I was struck by the large number of people waiting to go to confession. At least 20 friars were hearing confessions, but long lines of people stood everywhere waiting to confess.