“If you want to know the suffering Christ well, look for a Franciscan,” Pope Francis said on April 5, at an audience with Franciscans from Tuscany.
The Franciscans are marking the 800th anniversary of the appearance of the stigmata on St. Francis, and the Pope remarked that the stigmata are “one one of the most eloquent signs the Lord has granted over the course of the centuries,” since they remind us of Christ’s redemptive suffering.
Reflecting on the characteristics of the Franciscan orders, the Pope said: “You are good confessors: the Franciscans are famous for this. You forgive everything. You forgive always.”