On 31 May, the Custody of the Holy Land celebrated the feast-day of the Visitation in Ain Karem: in this shrine, about 8 kilometres from the Old City of Jerusalem, the visit of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth is remembered. The Gospel according to Luke (1:39-56) gives us a delicate and intimate picture of the meeting between the women: Elizabeth who in her old age was despairing about the possibility of having children, greeted Mary, carrying Jesus in […]
Coronavirus is not stopping the music of the Custody of the Holy Land. This year again, the Terra Sancta Organ Festival, the largest festival of organ music in the Middle East and the Levant, inaugurates its new musical season on 5th October. Until the public can be allowed in once more, the concerts will be held without an audience and shown over the internet on the website www.tsorganfestival.org (where the complete programme can be consulted), on the festival’s YouTube channel, […]
With the Armenian Christmas, which in the Holy Land is celebrated on 19 January, the Christmas festivities comes to a close. On Monday 22 January, the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land went to the Armenian Patriarchate for the exchange of greetings. The delegation, led by the Custos of the Holy Land, fra Francesco Patton – was received in the great hall of the Armenian Patriarchate by the Patriarch, Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, and by some bishops and […]
