Just as for the whole of the Church, Lent has begun in the Holy Land as well and we are about to live through this time of grace which precedes Easter. On 22nd February, Ash Wednesday, Franciscans, pilgrims and local Christians gathered around Christ’s empty tomb, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to celebrate the start of Lent, a period of fasting, penitence and prayer. At the celebration at 6.30 in the morning, presided by fr. Stéphane […]
The annual prolusion for the opening of the academic year of the École biblique and of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (SBF), two of the most important Catholic academic institutions in the Holy Land, was held on Friday 15th November, in the Church of St Stephen at the Dominican convent and seat of the École biblique et archéologique française of Jerusalem (EBAF). Each year, in turn, this event is hosted in one of these two venues. The first part of the […]
The liturgical celebration in honour of Belgium was celebrated on 19 November in St Saviour’s church in Jerusalem. This country – together with France, Italy and Spain – is considered one of the four “Catholic nations” that protect the Christian communities, for the role it has played in history since the beginning in relation to the Custody of the Holy Land, supporting and protecting the Franciscans in their mission of looking after, taking care of and maintaining the Holy Places. […]
