Year of Saint Francis decree (2026)
Year of Saint Francis pilgrimage
Make a pilgrimage to a Franciscan conventual church or a place of worship dedicated or connected to Saint Francis.
Time required Variable: a complete visit and either the prescribed rites or prayer.
- When
- 10 January 2026–10 January 2027
- Where
- Qualifying Franciscan or Saint Francis places of worship worldwide
- Who
- All eligible faithful; Franciscan families, institutes and associations are expressly included
- Application
- Self or the departed
The prescribed work
- Make a pilgrimage to a Franciscan conventual church or another place of worship dedicated to Saint Francis or connected to him for any reason, anywhere in the world.
- There, either devoutly participate in the jubilee rites, or spend a suitable period in pious meditation and pray that, following Saint Francis’s example, Christian charity towards others and authentic desires for harmony and peace among peoples may arise in people’s hearts. Complete this meditation-and-prayer alternative with the Our Father, the Creed, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare and all the saints of the Franciscan Family.
- Fulfil the usual plenary conditions, including complete detachment from sin, sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions.
The work and its conditions
A plenary indulgence also requires complete detachment from every sin, sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, subject to the grant’s stated exceptions. The ordinary limit is one plenary indulgence per day.
Conditions common to every indulgence
The person gaining an indulgence must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least when the prescribed works are completed. There must be at least a general intention to gain indulgences, and the prescribed work must be performed at the time and in the manner required by the grant.
Read the full conditions and norms. The cited grant and its specific provisions govern.
Time required
Read each branch with its own conditions. An editorial estimate is not a prescribed minimum.
Pilgrimage/visit with jubilee rites
Complete the prescribed event
Length of the prescribed celebration.
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. The complete prescribed visit and participation in the selected rites are required; the service schedule determines the duration.
Pilgrimage/visit with prayer
Duration varies
Variable; no fixed number of minutes is prescribed.
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. Complete the prescribed visit, prayer or meditation and concluding prayers. No numeric duration is supplied by the source; do not treat recitation of the concluding prayers alone as the whole work.
What the time estimate excludes
- Ordinary travel to and from the venue, and waiting outside the prescribed work; required procession or pilgrimage activity remains included
- Separate confession, Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, except where a branch expressly includes the prescribed celebration
- Stated start
- 10 January 2026
- Stated end
- 10 January 2027
Prayer texts and resources
Follow the prayer count and formula specified in the requirements. The two Creed readers are alternatives.
Source and exact reference
- Apostolic Penitentiary decree, 10 January 2026Operative pilgrimage clause following points 1–2: jubilee rites or a suitable period of meditation and intercession concluding with the specified prayers; usual conditions and separate impeded provision
- Apostolic Penitentiary decree, 10 January 2026: official Italian textOperative paragraph following points 1–2; Italian sequence of rites or suitable meditation, intercession and concluding prayers
Prayer texts and grants have separate source histories. Consult the grant source for the prescribed work, occasion, and conditions.