"The saint died"
"THEY SHALL BEAR FRUIT EVEN IN OLD AGE, THEY WILL STAY FRESH AND GREEN (Ps 92:15)
After being relieved of her duties as Superior General of the Congregation - an unjustified deposition, the counselors at the beatification process said - Mother Frances lived in the Motherhouse in Rome for nine years, giving clear proof of obedience and humility. She intensified her interior life by admirably combining it with constant and unsparing activity to help the sisters, to serve the children and the people, as the many voices of the de visu witnesses attest. While remaining in the shadows with singular discretion - now even more so! - "she exercised an irresistible fascination ... touching souls and winning them to the Gospel.”
On July 2, 1905, she was transferred to Castel Sant'Elia, a small village about 50 km north of Rome. Although she felt the weight of the years and the fatigue of poor health, she continued to take care of the youngest, poorest and sickest children. The people who, as Pope Francis says, have the scent of God and the saints, recognized in her the traits of the evangelical signs of compassionate charity. They saw her daily bent over the needs of all and, at the same time, they sensed that she was totally gathered in God. Soon the voice of the people was: "Behold the saint!".
EVEN IN DEATH SHE SEEMED TO HAVE THE COLORS OF LIFE
In 1911 Mother Frances' body, undermined by the intensity of her efforts and the protracted sacrifices, presented her with a heavy bill. On the eve of Candlemas, February 1st, the first symptoms of a stroke appeared, which caused her paralysis and took her to her grave after 33 days of severe suffering lived in an exemplary, indeed even heroic way. On February 27th she received the anointing of the Sick and on February 28th Holy Viaticum.
She died on March 6, 1911 while the community was gathered in the chapel and Msgr. G. Jacquemin was celebrating Holy Mass. Mother Frances' face was luminous: "even in death she seemed to have the colors of life". The Holy Mass of the funeral, on March 8th, was celebrated by the Bishop of Nepi, and Msgr. Doebbing, OFM, who had words of great esteem for the Servant of God. All the people of the city were present and said: "The saint died.” After the funeral, the coffin was carried along the streets of the town to the cemetery amid the emotion and warmth of the crowd.
"Goodbye, Mother Frances,
goodbye;
when ecstatic I will admire the sunset,
in the dying sun
I will see the image of your life
Who, while just before
she smiled with gentle visions
that cheer the soul,
suddenly vanished,
just like getting ready
for darkness, the sun is hidden
with its rosy transparent clouds
that surrounded it."
Bianca Camilloni
Castel sant'Elia, March 8, 1911