St Francis: eight hundred years, and a national holiday again

Francis died on the evening of 3 October 1226 at the Porziuncola, below Assisi. He was around forty-four and had asked to be laid naked on the earth: stripped of everything until the very end. Eight hundred years later, the Sacro Convento calls 2026 the eighth Franciscan centenary, and Italy has decided to celebrate him in a way that appears on the calendar.

A holiday returns

Law No. 151 of 8 October 2025, effective from 1 January 2026, restored 4 October as a national public holiday. Its stated aim is to promote the values associated with Italy’s patron saint: peace, fraternity, care for creation and solidarity. This year, 4 October fell on a Sunday, so many barely noticed. From 2027, it will be an additional weekday holiday.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella attended the celebrations in Assisi on 4 October 2026. He was present at Mass presided over by Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi and the lighting of the votive lamp by Mayor Valter Stoppini. He then addressed the country from the Loggia of the Sacro Convento.

400,000 people came to see him

One of the year’s most striking moments came between February and March, when Francis’s body was exposed for the faithful to venerate. Around 400,000 people visited, and many then crossed the city to pray at Carlo Acutis’s tomb at the Sanctuary of the Renunciation.

The thread connecting it all

At CHIARA!, we find this connection beautiful. Francis took off his clothes before the bishop to entrust himself to God alone. Carlo rests in that same sanctuary eight centuries later. And our magazine invites its readers to let go of what is unnecessary and dress themselves in joy. Friar Giulio Cesareo of the Sacro Convento summed up the saint’s message simply: live as brothers and sisters rather than rivals.