This article is part of a series of reflections written by our International Board of Directors to celebrate the 800 year anniversary of the Canticle of Creatures
• • •
As we commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures, we cannot overlook one of the most challenging and profoundly liberating verses of Saint Francis:
“Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape.”
In the final days of his life at the Portiuncula, Francis of Assisi did not flee from the fragility of his body or the nearness of death. On the contrary, he embraced it as part of the fabric of creation and as the gateway to the ultimate encounter with God. There, lying naked on the ground, he asked to be placed upon the earth so that he might fully experience his littleness and his complete trust in the Father.
Francis and His Witness
All of Francis’ life was a journey of letting go: surrendering what seemed indispensable in order to discover that God alone suffices. That path of dispossession reached its fulfillment in his encounter with death, when he welcomed it not as an enemy but as a sister who would lead him to the embrace of Christ.
Calling death “sister” reveals the mystery of radical fraternity: even death, often feared and rejected, has a place within God’s loving design. For Francis, death was not the end but the light of the paschal passage into life with God.
A Call for Our Time
In a world scarred by wars, violence, exclusion, and ecological crises, Francis reminds us that death does not have the last word. To accept it as sister does not mean to glorify suffering, but rather to live reconciled with our human limits, to open ourselves to the hope of resurrection, and to learn to cherish life in all its forms.
The Franciscan conviction is that death opens the horizon of the final encounter with the Lord. From this perspective, we are invited to live simply, to reconcile with creation and with one another, and to commit ourselves to defending human dignity and the integrity of the planet—knowing that every step toward justice and fraternity prepares our hearts for eternity.
Conclusion
To celebrate 800 years of the Canticle is also to learn with Francis to say, without fear:
“Welcome, Sister Death, for in you is fulfilled the promise of Love that never dies.”
May this anniversary inspire Franciscans International to continue working for a world where life is respected, dignity is upheld, and death is not the fruit of violence or injustice, but the serene passage into the fullness of God.
– By Brother José Eduardo Jazo Tarín TOR