Chapter CXXIII How, when he did hear that he should die so soon, he did forthwith make be chanted the Lauds that he had made Afterthese things, a certain brother said unto him: “Father, thy life
Complete three-work composite: CCEL Fioretti; Salter 1904 Life and Miracles; Evans 1899 / Goretti 2025 Mirror
Chapter CXXIII How, when he did hear that he should die so soon, he did forthwith make be chanted the Lauds that he had made Afterthese things, a certain brother said unto him: “Father, thy life
and conversation was and is a light and a mirror not only unto thy
brethren but unto the whole Church, and that same thing shall thy death be; and albeit unto thy brethren and unto many others, thy death shall be a matter of sadness and sorrow, yet shall comfort be thine and a joy that is infinite, for thou shalt pass away from sore travail unto exceeding rest, away from these many pains and temptations unto everlasting peace, away from this temporal poverty that thou hast loved and perfectly hast observed unto the true riches without end, away from this temporal death unto the life that faileth not, wherein face to face shalt thou behold thy Lord God whom in this world thou hast loved with so great fervency of love and desire!”
And when he had spoken thus, he said unto him plainly: “Father, know this of a truth, that save the Lord should send thee healing from heaven, thine infirmity is past all healing, and thou hast but a brief space to live, even as the leeches have said but just now. But this I have said unto thee for the comforting of thy spirit, that thou mayst ever both inwardly and outwardly rejoice in the Lord, so as that thy brethren and others that come to see thee may find thee ever rejoicing in the Lord, and that unto them that shall see it and unto others that shall hear thereof after thy death, thy death may be a memorial forever, like as hath been and ever shall be thy life and conversation.”
Then the Blessed Francis, albeit that he were weighed down by his infir- mities beyond his wont, yet did seem nevertheless to put on new gladness of mind, hearing that Sister Death was so close at hand, and with great fervency of spirit gave praise unto the Lord, and said unto the brother: “Therefore, if it please the Lord that I am soon to die, call brother Angelo and brother Leo unto me, that they may sing to me of Sister Death.”
When those two brethren had come into his presence, full of grief and sadness with many tears, they chanted the “Song of Brother Sun and of the other creatures of the Lord” that the holy man had made. And at that time, before the last verse of the canticle, he added certain verses as concerning Sister Death, saying:
Praised be Thou, O my Lord, of Sister Death, the death of the body, from whom no man living may escape, but woe unto them that shall die in deadly sin, and blessed be they that shall walk according to Thy most holy will, for unto them shall the second death do no hurt!