The solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist began at the shrine of St. John in the Desert with the First Vespers on 23 June, celebrated every year in the places of the saint’s life, a few kilometres from Jerusalem. The third of the shrines of Ain Karem, after that of the Visitation and of the birth of St John the Baptist, in the hermitage of St. John in the Desert commemorates the place of the Baptist’s childhood […]
Three novices of the Custody of the Holy Land made their first profession (temporary vows) in the hands of the Custos of the Holy Land, fra Francesco Patton. They are fra Butrus Muallem, fra Deyvis Padilla Cervantes and fra José Luís Guaimas. The ceremony, presided over by the Father Custos took place on Saturday 2 September in La Verna (Italy). Four other novices – from the Tuscany and Lithuania Provinces of the Order of Friars Minor – publicly manifested their […]
The friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, together with friends and faithful, gathered around the family of Shibly Abu Sada for the last farewell to one of the long-term collaborators of the Custody. Shibli was “a gift from the Lord and a special person,”, the Custos of the Holy Land, Fra Francesco Patton, said who on 15 October, presided over his funeral in St James’ church in Beit Hanina (Jerusalem). The Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, Cardinal […]
On Thursday, February 20, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, D.C., hosted a concert featuring two choirs: the Indian Springs School Concert Choir, from Indian Springs, Alabama; and the Camerata from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The selections ranged from the sacred, such as AdoroTe Devote, and the secular, including the Irish classic, “Danny Boy.”The choirs performed individual selections and concluded the evening with a joint performance including pieces by Bach and Handel, from The Messiah. […]
