From September 25 to October 3, 2026, a novena has been proposed: nine evenings of prayer culminating on the night Francis died, eight hundred years ago. This novena can be prayed in a church, a religious community’s chapel, or around a dining room or kitchen table.

Nine Around One: A Novena of Companions is now available in English, Spanish, Italian, and Polish on the resources page of FranciscanVoice.org and at VozFranciscana.org. Two booklets have been prepared for you. The first is a leader’s book, with every text printed in full, so that whoever leads never has to look anything up. There is also a participant’s aid: nine sheets, one for each evening, printed on both sides. No day of the week is printed anywhere in them, so they can be reused each year.

A Novena of Mourning
Novenas did not begin as preparation for a feast. They began as mourning: nine days during which the Church has always kept vigil beside her dead, and still does for a pope. This year, that older meaning guides our Novena of Companions. The ninth evening is the night Francis of Assisi died, and his feast is celebrated the next morning, so we keep the wake and prepare for the feast during the same nine evenings. The ninth evening does not replace a transitus celebration, but offers an opportunity to commemorate the Transitus for those who cannot attend one.

Nine Buried Around Him
On each evening of the novena, one of Francis’ companions will speak: Sylvester, Bernard of Quintavalle, Lady Jacoba, Masseo, William of England, Angelo Tancredi, John of England, Rufino, and Leo. All of them are buried near Francis’ tomb, either in the crypt or nearby, in the Lower Church of the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

The Prayer
Each evening of this novena follows the four movements of prayer expressed by Clare in her letter to Agnes of Prague: we gaze by listening to a companion, consider by holding one word of the Church’s social teaching, contemplate by sitting with the Scripture and the silence that follows it, and imitate by carrying one small thing away and doing it before we meet again.
In addition, a verse of the Canticle of the Creatures is added each evening, in the order in which Francis wrote it, until, on the ninth evening, the assembly has the whole poem before them to sing, as it was sung for Francis at the moment of his transitus.

Friar Michael LASKY,
General Delegate for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation