The Terra Sancta Museum - Art and History is not the only artistic work of the Custos of the Holy Land, the Magnificat music conservatory and its choir, as well as individual friars, belong to it, exploring the link between art and mission.
We met one of them, Fr. Balu.
At the beginning of November, in the convent of Saint Saviour in Jerusalem, we discovered the exhibition of Fr. Balu. Originally from India and a theology student, he unites brushes and prayer, expressing this combination between art and a "journey of faith". He opens the doors of his studio, his "secret chapel", as he likes to call it, a place open to all, where he can give shape to his art.
Since childhood, Fr. Balu has drawn, painted and sculpted. His current exhibition is entitled "Logos and Icons". The word Logos (λόγος) in Greek means at the same time "word", "speech", "reason" or "meaning". In this context, it indicates Christ himself. "The Word became flesh so that we could see him, touch him, experience him", explains Fr. Balu.
His canvases, often stylized self portraits like "modern icons", are arranged in the shape of a cross, transforming the exhibition space into a true place of prayer. More than a gallery, the whole evokes a chapel, inspired by the daily reality of the Holy Land. Next to his paintings, the poems of Fr. Luis Cisneros, another Franciscan artist, dialogue with the images, "Words make us hear what the colors want to say", he summarizes.
From November 3 to 7 2025, Fr. Balu and Fr. Corrado Sica, General Organist of the Holy Sepulchre and Deputy Director of the Magnificat conservatory of Jerusalem, were invited to an international meeting of Franciscan artists at the General Curia of the Franciscan Order in Rome. Four days of dialogue, music and sharing around the same conviction, art is not a simple ornament, but a path of evangelization.
"It was not a succession of presentations", explains Fr. Balu, "but a common reflection on what we want to express as Franciscan artists, that is, our faith in the Gospel through art." Musicians, singers, painters and photographers shared their way of creating and living the faith through art.
The Minister General, Fr. Massimo Fusarelli, recalled the profound meaning of this approach, "Do not create your art behind closed doors, open them, let people enter, dialogue with them."
For Fr. Balu, this artistic dimension has its roots in the spirituality of Saint Francis himself. "Francis did not say how the Gospel had to be lived, but simply to live it. For Franciscans, everything can become a means of proclamation, teaching, singing, painting, creating." It is this same boldness that today moves the Franciscans to create the Terra Sancta Museum, convinced that art is fertile ground for relationships and a possible place of encounter with Christ.
Terra Sancta Museum
