The Transitus

In all things

he wished to be conformed to Christ crucified,

who hung on the cross

poor, suffering and naked.

Therefore at the beginning of his conversion,

he stood naked before his bishop,

and at the end of his life,

naked he wished to go out of this world.

He enjoined the friars assisting him,

under obedience and charity,

that when they saw that he was dead,

they should allow

his body to lie naked on the ground

for the length of time

it takes to walk a leisurely mile.

O, he was truly the most Christian of men,

and strove to conform himself to Christ

and to imitate him perfectly—
while living to imitate Christ living,
and after death to imitate Christ dying,
and after death to imitate Christ after death—
and he merited to be honored
with the imprint of Christ's likeness!

—St. Bonaventure, The Life of St. Francis (Legenda maior)

translated by Ewert Cousins in Bonaventure, Paulist Press,
1979