Franciscan Jubilee Year invites pilgrims to walk in St. Francis of Assisi’s footsteps
Pope Leo declared a special Franciscan Jubilee Year 2026‑2027 to mark 800 years since St. Francis’s death, inviting Catholics to visit related churches and sites. Pilgrims are expected to gather in Assisi and other Franciscan churches worldwide, with the Basilica of St. Francis and the Portiuncula highlighted as key destinations. During February‑March, about 400,000 people viewed St. Francis’s skeletal remains in the basilica for the first time in the jubilee year. The article describes St. Francis’s life through Giotto’s frescoes and the historical significance of the Portiuncula, where he welcomed St. Clare.
4 months ago
Pilgrims worldwide are flocking to Italy and other Franciscan sites as Pope Leo XIV’s declared Franciscan Jubilee Year runs from Jan 10 2026 to Jan 10 2027, inviting the faithful to walk in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi and receive plenary indulgences through visits, prayer, and confession 1.
Pope Leo XIV proclaimed a special Franciscan Jubilee Year to commemorate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ “Transitus,” the saint’s death in 1226 1.
The year‑long celebration runs from 10 January 2026 through 10 January 2027 and encourages Catholics to visit churches, shrines, and locations linked to Franciscan spirituality, love of animals, and service to the poor 1.
Father John Puodziunas, OFM, and Father David Wathen, OFM, have led groups of U.S. pilgrims to Assisi, the Portiuncula, and Rome, integrating Mass, confession, and reflection on Franciscan values 1.
To obtain the plenary indulgence, pilgrims must:
The Franciscan Order now numbers 35,000 friars across 100 countries, and the jubilee encourages pilgrimages beyond Italy, fostering a worldwide renewal of Franciscan spirituality 1.
Assess the theological significance of the Franciscan Jubilee Year
The Franciscan Jubilee Year has theological significance because it takes the Church’s Jubilee theology—grace for conversion, reconciliation, and remission of sins and their temporal effects—and “inculturates” it in the Franciscan charism of following Christ through the holy Gospel lived in obedience and poverty, under the guidance of the Church. In practice, it also shows how Jubilee indulgences are meant to express the communion of saints rather than any “magical” approach to forgiveness.
A Jubilee in Church teaching is not merely a cultural anniversary; it is an ecclesial “year of the Lord’s favour” meant to become a concrete season of grace. Pope John Paul II explains that the Jubilee is “precisely this ‘year of the Lord’s favour’, a year of the remission of sins and of the punishments due to them, a year of reconciliation… a year of manifold conversions and of sacramental and extra-sacramental penance.”
This is rooted in the biblical Jubilee tradition from Leviticus: the proclamation of “freedom for the entire people” and restoration in God’s justice, especially for “the poor and the dispossessed,” so that “no one comes into this world doomed to oppression.”
The Franciscan Jubilee’s theological significance, therefore, is that it becomes a time when these universal Jubilee graces are applied through the lens of St. Francis and the Franciscan way of life, using the Church’s time of grace to renew both personal repentance and communal reconciliation.
A major feature of Jubilees is the wider granting of indulgences. Pope John Paul II notes that the tradition includes “the granting of indulgences on a larger scale than at other times.”
To grasp the theological meaning, it matters what an indulgence is—and what it is not. A common misunderstanding is to treat indulgences like a mechanical ritual. Romanus Cessario, O.P., emphasizes that authentic Jubilee teaching presents indulgences as belonging to the penitential spirit and to the communion of saints, not to magic: “Charity is not produced by magic,” and the Church’s own instruction requires true interior contrition and the prior confession of sins to a priest.
In the Church’s historical Jubilee bulls, indulgence is described in terms of remission of temporal punishment and restoration after sin. The Bull of Jubilee (1924) speaks of those who perform the Apostolic See’s penitential ordinances during the Jubilee as regaining “abundance of merits and gifts,” being “set free from… Satan,” and being “fully absolved” from the punishment they would otherwise have had to pay.
Cessario also clarifies the Christological and ecclesial basis: Christ’s satisfaction has a kind of infinite value, and the Church draws on a “treasure” of the good of Christ and the saints (the thesaurus ecclesiae), because all are one Body in charity.
(He also rejects the idea that sin is only an outward “rule-breaking” and that healing is automatic without interior conversion.)
Alban Butler’s discussion provides a practical definition often used in Catholic explanation: an indulgence is remission of temporal punishment, not remission of the guilt (which is forgiven in confession/absolution), and a plenary indulgence remits all temporal punishment up to that point.
Because Franciscan spirituality is strongly penitential—shaping life by Gospel simplicity, repentance, and works of charity—the Jubilee indulgence is theologically well fitted to Franciscan renewal: it presses believers toward interior change and healing of the disorder sin causes, not toward external repetition.
And the Church has explicitly connected Franciscan jubilees to indulgences. For example, Pope Benedict XV granted Franciscan-family celebrations favors including plenary indulgences for specified faithful dispositions during a Franciscan centenary/triduum structure.
A Franciscan Jubilee is also theological because it concentrates attention on who Francis is in the Church—and what the Franciscan life is meant to be.
Nicholas III (in Exiit qui seminat) presents the Franciscan rule as rooted in the evangelical life of Christ and “made firm… by the Holy Spirit… to blessed Francis,” describing Francis’s life under divine guidance and the Church’s approval.
The theological point here is not sentimental admiration; it is ecclesial: Franciscan spirituality is not a private spirituality floating outside doctrine. It is a way of living the Gospel within the Church’s authority, and the Jubilee highlights that unity.
This is why Church documents also defend Francis from distortions. Pope Pius XI explicitly condemns the claim that Francis was “an opponent of the discipline of the Church,” insisting instead that Francis was “in a special manner obedient and faithful… to this Apostolic See, and to the teachings of Christ,” and that he urged reverence for clergy and the hierarchy.
Jubilees, then, serve as theological “clarifiers” as well: a Franciscan Jubilee can correct misunderstandings about Francis by re-centering him as a Catholic and apostolic man who lived Gospel radicalism while remaining obedient to the Church.
A further theological dimension is how Franciscan Jubilee spirituality shapes the meaning of created goods and human desires.
John Paul II explains that Francis “understood the sacredness of creation” and that by “lady poverty” Francis learned a joy in the world as a reflection of divine glory; therefore it is part of the Franciscan vocation to teach people “to relate the things of this world to the work of salvation,” so that Christians do not stop at created things but “lead them… to a hope which transcends all created things.”
Within Jubilee theology, this matters because conversion is not merely guilt-removal; it is reorientation of the whole person. Cessario frames this healing as restoring ordered affection and a remedial discipline that redirects the will toward good.
So a Franciscan Jubilee is theologically significant as a lived “school of hope,” where Jubilee grace pushes believers toward a renewed love that can also stand against despair—something Pope Francis describes as central to Jubilees: “Hope does not disappoint,” and the Jubilee is “an opportunity to be renewed in hope.”
Jubilee theology is also social. A 1995 Vatican document (Acta Apostolicae Sedis) states that the Jubilee’s purpose includes restoring social justice, and that the Jubilee practice roots itself in the Church’s social doctrine.
Pope Francis likewise interprets the biblical Jubilee as restoring God’s justice “in the use of the land, in the possession of goods and in relationships with others,” especially for “the poor and the dispossessed.”
This is where the Franciscan Jubilee becomes more than “religious renewal.” It can become an ecclesial reminder that Franciscan poverty is meant to foster solidarity—a Gospel-shaped way of living that makes room for the marginalized—and that Jubilee grace, while sacramental, must also bear fruit in relationships and justice.
Finally, a Franciscan Jubilee is theologically significant because it underscores that authentic Franciscan life is lived in communion with the Apostolic See and in fidelity to Church governance.
Pius XI’s defense of Francis highlights his obedience to hierarchy.
And Rite Expiatis presents the Friars Minor as living the “holy Gospel… in obedience… without possessing any property,” with obedience “according to the commands of the Roman Pontiffs” and with clear ecclesial boundaries regarding governance and mission.
Even modern papal involvement signals continuity of this ecclesial meaning: Pope Leo XIV has issued a letter to the Ministers General of the Conference of the Franciscan Family for the opening of the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis.
In short, the Franciscan Jubilee’s theological significance lies in this synthesis:
The Franciscan Jubilee Year is therefore an ecclesial act of grace that uses the Church’s Jubilee theology to renew Franciscan life as a concrete way of conversion, communion, and hope in Christ.