A forgotten text by St. Francis of Assisi was rediscovered in the complete edition of the saint and his life printed in Paris in 1880. Column 430 of this Latin edition contains an unknown vision of the saint, which he shared with the brothers shortly before his death.

Francis said: After summoning the brothers shortly before his death, he warned them of future afflictions by saying: "Act bravely, brothers, be strong and hope for the Lord. Great times of distress and tribulation are imminent before ( literally: hurry to prefer ), in which confusions and dangers of a secular and spiritual nature will prevail, the love of many will cool down and the badness of the bad will exceed every measure.

The power of the demons will be released more than usual, the immaculate purity of our and the rest of the orders will be so distorted, that very few of the Christians will obey the true Pope and the Roman Church with a sincere heart and complete love:

Someone who is not canonically chosen, ( but ) at the height of that tribulation, will endeavor, in a refined way ( literally: with ingenuity ) many the deadly poison ( literally: to instill the death ) of his error.

Then the annoyances will multiply, our order will be split, many of the other ( orders ) will break completely because they will not contradict the error but will agree. There will be so many opinions and divisions among the people, among the religious and in the clergy that if those days are not shortened according to the word of the gospel, even the elect ( if this were possible ) would be misled if they were not led by God's immeasurable mercy in such a violent storm. Our rule and way of life will then be combated by some to the utmost. Immeasurable temptations will break in. Those who will then prove themselves will receive the crown of life. But woe to those who, placing their hope solely on religious life, become lukewarm and do not persistently resist the temptations that are allowed to test the elect.

But those who hold onto piety with a fervent spirit of love and zeal for the truth will suffer persecution and injustice as disobedient and schismatic. Because their persecutors, driven by the evil spirits, will claim that it is a great deed of obedience ( literally: a great obedience ) to God, to kill such pernicious people and to destroy them from the earth.

But then the Lord will be a refuge for the afflicted, and he will save those who hoped for him. And to become uniform to their heads, they will act confidently and, by death, acquire eternal life, choose to obey God more than men; and they will, since they do not want to agree to lies and treachery, they do not fear death in any way.

The truth is then hushed up by some preachers ( literally: covered with silence ), crushed and denied by others. The holiness of the way of life will be ridiculed by those who profess it ( ), which is why the Lord Jesus Christ will not send them a worthy shepherd but a exterminator."