St. Francis's letter never left, but his friend brought everything

ASSISI, Umbria, 1226 AD — Saint Francis of Assisi was in his last days in 1226 AD. He asked his brothers to write a letter to a friend in Rome. He wanted grey cloth for a new habit, and the sweets she used to make for him. The brothers wrote the letter. Then one of them went off to find another brother to carry it to her.

St. Francis was dying at the Porziuncola, a small chapel in the plain below the town of Assisi. He lay in a tiny hut beside it that the brothers used for the sick. His brothers had carried him there in his bed from the bishop’s palace in Assisi. He wanted to die in the same little chapel where, years before, he had first come close to God. By then he could no longer see.

The lady with the lamb

The friend in Rome was Lady Jacoba of Settesoli. She was a widow from one of the richest families in the city. St. Francis’s preaching had brought her to love Christ so much that she was often in tears.

Once, when St. Francis had a lamb with him in Rome, he gave it to her to look after. The lamb walked to church at her side. If she stayed in bed too long in the morning, it butted her with its little horns. Then it bleated until she got up and went to church.

St. Francis gave her a nickname. He called her Brother Jacoba, because she was so strong and brave. In Rome she often made him a sweet called mostacciuolo (a sweet of almonds and sugar). In the letter he asked for some of those sweets, and for wax to make candles. For his habit he wanted grey cloth — in St. Francis’s words, “religious cloth that is like unto ashes in colour.”

A knock at the door

Before the brother had found anyone to take the letter, there was a knock at the door. One of the brothers opened it, and there stood Lady Jacoba. She had come from Rome in a great hurry, with her son and many other people.

But St. Francis had made a rule that no woman could come inside the cloister at the Porziuncola. It was a holy place, kept for prayer. So a brother who knew her ran to St. Francis and asked: “What shall we do, father? Shall we let her enter and come unto thee?”

St. Francis told the brothers that his rule did not count for her. Her faith and love, he said, had brought her a very long way. In his words, the rule “is not to be observed in respect of that Lady.”

Lady Jacoba came in to him crying. She had brought the ash-grey cloth for his habit, the almond sweets and the wax. It was all the letter asked for, just as if she had read it.

Then she told the brothers how she knew. While she was praying, she had been told to go to St. Francis at once. If she waited too long, she would not find him alive. The words she heard began, “Go and visit thy father the Blessed Francis.” She had been told what to bring, too. It was cloth for his habit, the sweets, lots of wax for candles, and incense. Only the incense hadn’t been in the letter.

St. Francis ate only a little of the almond sweets, because he was so close to death. He had candles made from the wax, to burn beside his body after he died. He asked the brothers to sew a piece of rough sackcloth onto his new habit. It was a sign that he was humble and poor.

Lady Jacoba stayed with St. Francis to the end. He died that same week. The brothers buried him in the habit they had sewn from her grey cloth.