Eight hundred years have passed since that heart-wrenching, yet glorious night when Saint Francis of Assisi made his flight from the hills of Umbria to the everlasting hills of the Kingdom of Heaven. Among the rites that developed in the saint’s honor down through the centuries, one of the most beautiful and evocative is the Rite of the Transitus, or “Passing.” This new edition includes the full rite as found in the Roman-Seraphic Ritual, with all the original Gregorian Chants and Latin prayers, newly type-set, together with English translations to aid the reader who is not proficient in Latin. The Appendices include a series of readings from the early biographies of the saint, together with the Gospel account which Saint Francis had the friars read to him shortly before his death.