Abstract
The article traces the construction of the legend surrounding the mystery of Francis of Assisi's stigmata, which are said to have appeared two years before his death. Central to this analysis, which is underpinned by sign and media theory, is the Legenda maior, a description of the life of Francis, written by Bonaventura four decades later on the basis of older testimonies and legends. The focus is on those strategies which allow the change of events between mediation and immediacy, in that they, on the one hand, are dominated by a concrete, spacial framework and, on the other, by moments of that which is unverfügbar