Now is the time to contact communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk (for Leeds and Hallam) AND communications@rcdmidd.org.uk (for Middlesbrough) with what’s planned in YOUR parish, school, Catholic charity or association to celebrate the Year of St Francis of Assisi!
Pope Leo XIV declared that 2026 – the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi’s death – should be a Year of St Francis across the Catholic Church. A Plenary Indulgence may be obtained (under the usual conditions) at any Franciscan Religious House, or any of the churches dedicated to St Francis of Assisi across the Dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hallam.
Diocese of Leeds:
The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, St Pio Friary and St Patrick’s Mission in Bradford BD1 2RU
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Eccleshill BD2 2JU
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Holbeck LS11 6TN
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Morley LS27 9NF
Diocese of Middlesbrough:
Churches of St Francis of Assisi, Acklam TS8 4RL and St Clare of Assisi, Coulby Newham TS8 0TW
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Hull HU8 0ND
Diocese of Hallam:
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Sheffield S10 5SD
Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Francis of Assisi, Armthorpe DN3 2DB
(Hallam also has a Catholic Multi-Academy Trust dedicated to St Francis of Assisi)
St Francis of Assisi (c 1181 – 1226) was made our Patron Saint of Ecology and the Environment by Pope St John Paul II in 1979. As one of the Church’s most beloved saints he is mainly known for preaching to the birds and the fishes, taming the wild Wolf of Gubbio, and loving all of God’s Creation – but as well as the natural world, St Francis’s true love was seeing Our Lord Jesus Christ in those who were poor or marginalised. He himself had given up a life of riches and luxury to ‘live simply’ as a Friar, and bore the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion, the Stigmata, on his own body. St Francis is known in Italian as ‘Il Poverello’ – the ‘Little Poor Man’ – and all today’s Franciscan Friars also have a special care for showing God’s love in practical ways to our brothers and sisters experiencing poverty, and whose lives and livelihoods are most affected by climate change.
St Francis tames the Wolf of Gubbio
St Francis bore the wounds of Christ’s Crucifixion, the Stigmata, on his own body
… visit the website of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal at St Patrick’s Mission in Bradford!
… and for more information on ‘Living Simply’, visit the CAFOD website!
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