This month marks 800 years since the death of Saint Francis of Assisi. He passed away on October 3, 1226. He was 45 years old and practically blind. It is believed that the progressive loss of vision, and the tearing that affected him, which is reproduced in some paintings, was the result of a painful infectious disease: trachoma, which causes wounds on the surface of the eye and the cornea. He must have contracted it on his trip to Egypt in 1219. The visionary man who had sung to "brother Sun" was entering into darkness.