This year, the feast-day of the Finding of the True Cross (Inventio Crucis) was postponed by one week to allow the Easter of the Orthodox Churches to take place. The friars of the Custody of the Holy Land celebrated it on 13 and 14 May in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. St Helena and the finding of the Cross St Helena’s Chapel, the heart of the celebrations, is one of the lowest points in the Holy Sepulchre, […]
The pilgrimage by the Swiss Guards in the Holy Land came to an end on Sunday 19th March. It was the first after the forced pause imposed by the pandemic. The tradition of the Swiss Guards’ pilgrimage started seven years ago, on the initiative of the Vatican military chaplain who realized how important it would be for these young men, at the service of the Church and of the Pope, to visit and pray in the places of the salvation […]
In the afternoon of 7 October, the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land gathered in St Saviour’s church in Jerusalem to pray the Rosary together and ask God for the gift of peace in the Holy Land and in the world, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Other initiatives were held in the various communities. The Rosary at St Saviour’s The prayer at St Saviour’s was presided over by the Custos, Fra Francesco Patton. For the occasion, an […]
On the morning of Saturday 7th September, at the Franciscan Sanctuary of La Verna (Italy), four novices made their first profession in the Order of Friars Minor. Coming from different parts of the world, after the first years of discernment, the four new friars completed their “trial year” at the Sanctuary of La Verna, continuing on their path of formation towards the Holy Land. Built-in the southern part of Mount Penna, in Tuscany, the Sanctuary is of great significance in […]
