Chapter Five
Custody of the Holy Land
Developments that involved the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century included the re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate and the growth of the institutions and services that were offered to the faithful by each of the Patriarchate and the Custody of the Holy Land. These institutions and services included the spiritual, economic and social aspects. Before we start discussing and analyzing these developments, we should take a quick look at the relations that linked the Franciscans[1] with Palestine since the establishment of the Custody of the Holy Land in the fourteenth century to-date.
Historical sources have revealed that St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), accompanied by 12 monks, visited the East in 1219. Some Franciscan historians give him the credit for being the founder of the Franciscan Province in Palestine: “St. Francis was the founder of this glorious mission which is known as the Mission of the Holy Land or the Mission of Syria, sometimes called the Province of Syria, Romania or more generally, Ultramarina (Beyond the Sea). This Province included all the regions around the south-east Mediterranean basin, extending from Egypt to Greece and farther.”[2]
During his visit to the East, St. Francis met with King el-Kamel of Egypt. According to the Franciscan version of the visit, St. Francis visited the Holy Land and took possession of some of the Holy Places, such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Golgotha and the Mount of Sion in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and kept some of his friars there. This episode of Franciscan history in the Holy Land could be historic reality or just a legend. Golubovich confirmed the authenticity of this episode. According to Golubovich, the Franciscan Frair Elia da Cortona is viewed as the first General Provincial of the Franciscan Province in the East in 1219.[3]
In 1229, Emperor Fredric and King al-Kamel concluded a 10-year truce according to which the Muslims restituted Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth to the Crusaders. The reason, which prompted the two parties to conclude the truce was that, King al-Kamel needed external help to cope with the ambitions of his brother al-Mu’azzam and his Khawarizmite allies. As for Emperor Fredric, he was under enormous pressure from the Papacy to launch a new Crusade that could rectify the situation that developed as a consequence of the failure of the Fifth Crusade. When the Emperor tried to delay, the Pope threatened him with excommunication in late September 1227. So he headed despite his will to the East with 500 knights not to fight, but to negotiate with King al-Kamel. Historic circumstances and the friendship existing between them prompted the two leaders to reach an understanding and to avoid a war which neither of the two sides needed. Until 1228, Emperor Fredric did not proceed to Jerusalem but was residing in Akre, and this prompted Pope Gregory IX to excommunicate him. The Franciscans conveyed the excommunication decree to the Latin Patriarch in Akre; the Emperor infuriated and punished the monks.
During the truce period from 1229-1240, the Latin Patriarch residing in Akre returned to Jerusalem along with his priests and friars. It is believed that the Franciscans accompanied him to Jerusalem without being given any specific jurisdiction in the administration of the religious affairs of the country or the Holy Places. Theirs was a monastic presence under the supervision of the Patriarch of Jerusalem as was the case with other clerics. When the truce expired in 1240, the Muslims entered the Holy City and the Crusaders left it to Akre. However, “the Franciscans stayed in the city out of their love for the Holy Places.”[4]
The Franciscans stayed in Jerusalem intermittently from the year 1240 until the fall of Akre in 1291. The evidence of this is that the records of the Custody give the names of some of their martyrs at that period. This Franciscan province was known as the Mission of Syria or the Custody of the Holy Land. The Franciscan General Chapter held in Pisa in 1263 in the era of St. Bonaventure, decided to annex areas of land to this region and these included the Crusader areas in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Cyprus. The region was divided into the Custodies of Akre, Antioch, Sidon, Tyre, Tripoli, Jerusalem and Jaffa.
In the aftermath of the fall of Akre, the office of Patriarch of Jerusalem became a titular one granted to some Church figures residing in the West. The Holy See designated the Franciscans to care for the remaining minority of the Latins in Palestine in addition to their supervision of the Holy Places, which they bought and which became their property. Pope John XXII was eager to continue the links, which the Franciscans forged with the Holy Land. He recommended on 9 April 1328 that the Provincial Franciscan Custos residing in Cyprus should send two of his friars to Palestine every year.[5]
At that time, a new no-war policy emerged in the Christian West. The Dominican William of Tripoli wrote in 1271 one the of famous books in the Middle Ages about the Muslims under the title: ‘Tractatus de Statu Saracenorum’ singling out the points on which Christianity and Islam could agree. The book defended the work of the missionaries, not the work of soldiers, in regaining the Holy Land.[6] After the European Christians made sure that the language of arms was ineffective in regaining the Holy Land, the Christian West substituted the policy of war with the policy of money and decided to buy the Holy Places with gold.[7]
The King of Naples Robert of Anjou and his wife Queen Sancia of Majorca contributed the necessary funds for this purpose. Franciscan Friar Ruggero Garini negotiated with King al-Nasser on behalf of King Roger of Anjou. According to Collin, the agreement, held between the two monarchs, was not an agreement between two ordinary persons but a real treaty between two leaders and the two states in favor of the Holy See, in which the Franciscans represented in the Holy Land.[8] On this occasion, two papal bulls were issued in 1342. The first was ‘Gratias Agimus’ and the second was ‘Nuper Carissimae.’ The two bulls dealt with the position of the Franciscans in the Holy Land and the efforts and role of the King of Naples and his wife in consolidating the rights of the Catholic Church in the Holy Places. The Franciscans viewed these two bulls as the basic proclamation of the establishment of the Custody of the Holy Land.[9]
At that period, some holy shrines were bought from the Muslim State Treasury.[10] The Franciscans keep the titles of these shrines in the archives of the Custody of the Holy Land at the Convent of St. Saviour in Jerusalem. Golubovich confirmed these documents and published them in his book: ‘Serie Cronologica dei Reverendissimi Superiori di Terra Santa’ in the form of an annex entitled: ‘Firmani e documenti arabi inediti.’ There were 12 of these documents, which were written between 1309 and 1357, or 709 and 758 Hegira.[11]
Contemporary historians confirm these foregoing events to the effect that the Franciscans took possession of some holy shrines. These included traveler Ludolfo di Sudheim, who visited Palestine in 1336. He wrote the following in his memoirs: “In this convent, the convent of Sion, the poor brethren -the Friars Minor- are living. During my visit to the country in 1336, Queen Sancia, wife of King Robert provided everything that was needed by the convent. The friars were holding Mass all the time publicly and with extreme piety. They buried their dead without paying any tax to the rulers. These monks were strong and capable men. They are praised by the merchants and the Muslims on equal footing for the good they do.”[12]
Thus the features of the system of the Holy Land Custody began to materialize. The Guardian -Guardiano- of the Mount Sion Convent was the superior of the Franciscans in Palestine and he reported to the Provincial Franciscan Minister residing in Cyprus. The Guardian of Mount Sion Monastery later secured further independence by detaching himself from the Provincial Minister staying in Cyprus, and attached himself to the General Franciscan Minister. The General Franciscan Chapter held in Lausanne in 1414 confirmed this. In 1526, the jurisdiction of the Provincial Minister was attributed to the Guardian of Mount Sion. Gradually, he was no longer called Guardian, but Custos -Custode-.[13]
The field of work of the friars in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was focused on the following:
- Guiding and receiving the pilgrims.
- Working for rapprochement between the Eastern and Western Christians. The fruits of this rapprochement became evident in the Council of Florence (1431-1443).
- Offering spiritual services to the European merchants and performing prayers for them.
- Guarding and maintaining the Holy Places and holding prayers there on behalf of the whole Catholic World, and this was the major and essential mission of the friars.
In addition to the jurisdictions of the Holy Land Custos as a Papal delegate and chief of the Catholic Mission, he was entrusted with some quasi-episcopal tasks and duties.[14] The area of the Holy Land Custody has once again expanded to include Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Asia Minor, Armenia and Greece. Over a period of six centuries, friars continued to flow to the Holy Land Custody from all the Franciscan provinces. Friars appointed to serve in the Holy Land may come from any of the Order's Provinces, thus ensuring the internationality of the Custody; once in the Holy Land the said friars are under the jurisdiction of the custos.
Our theme of discussion here is not the history of the Holy Land Custody in general, but specifically speaking, in Palestine. We will restrict discussion to the role and work of the Franciscan friars among the local Christians and the services they have offered to the local community through the parishes that were established around their monasteries, such as schools, clinics, printing press and orphanages.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Pope Pius IX sought to revive the Latin Patriarchate. The Patriarchate in Palestine alongside the Custody of the Holy Land never sought to deprive the latter from the role entrusted to it by the Church, but supported the friars in achieving their mission and in fulfilling their joint responsibility, each from its own position.
1-A look at the Holy Land Custody in the nineteenth century:
The image of the Holy Land Custody in the nineteenth century could be ambiguous for contemporary observers. However, the concepts and questions become clear if we realize the historic roots of the establishment of the Custody of the Holy Land. The most important factors, which led to its formation as a unique entity, were the following:
- The Custody of the Holy Land was formed in the period that followed the Crusades under an atmosphere of hostility between the Muslim East and the Christian West.
- The West reached the conclusion that there is no use in launching new Crusades to liberate the Holy Land. Thus the Franciscans sought to build their presence there by money and politics. The Holy Places were bought with money and politics, and they kept them. The friars asked the Christian kingdoms to provide them with the money needed and to mediate with the rulers of Palestine to protect their rights and gains.
- The age in which the Custody of the Holy Land and other Churches were formed was not the age of Christian ecumenism. No coordination was made among the Christian denominations and Churches to embark on a joint action. In fact, these denominations and Churches were at odds, and the state became an arbitrator in settling the quarrels of the Christian denominations over the Holy Places. “The Ottomans performed the role of arbitrator between the Jews and Christians, between the Orthodox Greeks and the Catholic Latins.”[15] The financial beneficiaries of these disputes over the Holy Places were the sultans of the ruling countries when it came to major deals, while the major beneficiaries of the repeated small deals were junior rulers and governors. The Custody of the Holy Land had to resort to the major Christian countries, particularly France, to finance these deals and to pressure the Sublime Porte to assert the rights of the Franciscans. Perhaps the Crimean War in the mid-nineteenth century was the best evidence of this.
- In the age that preceded the Christian ecumenical movement, various Christian denominations did their best to win over converts from other Christian denominations. Financial temptations and harassments played a major role in the conversion of the faithful from one Christian denomination to another. The conversion was sometimes prompted by the desire to enjoy protection, which that particular denomination enjoyed from a certain foreign country, within the Millet and Capitulation Systems, particularly when the Ottoman Sultanate weakened and lost its prestige in the eyes of the Great Powers.
- The Church played the role of the state in securing some of the social, economic and educational services, because the state wholly or partly relinquished its duties in these fields.
These factors combined and others led to the formation of the following image of the Holy Land Custody: The spiritual jurisdiction of the Custos of the Holy Land embraced all the Catholics residing in Palestine, with the exception of the Greek Catholic Melchites, who were affiliated with the Tyre Bishopric. The custos enjoyed the special privilege of raising the Custody banner above its buildings and centers. As far as internal organization was concerned, the custos was Italian, his deputy was French and the Treasurer and his deputy were Spanish. The Custody Discreets (Council) consisted of four members of four different nationalities: Italian, Spanish, French and German. “Custody, as you see, is international in its structure and consists of many nationalities. However, the Italian influence is the prevailing one.”[16] The Custos of the Holy Land resides in the Convent of St. Saviour in Jerusalem since 1559. The Franciscans bought it from the Georgians after the Franciscans evacuated Mount Sion Convent in 1551.
As far as the external organization of the Custody is concerned, it is a reflection of the duties of the friars in the Holy Land. Therefore, they are divided into two groups. The first group undertakes the protection and maintenance of the Holy Places, holding religious rites in them, while the other group consists of the Franciscan missionaries who are preaching on behalf of Catholicism and caring for the Catholics.[17]
According to Patrem, there were in the Custody 300 friars in 1879, including 100 priests and 100 working in the pastoral affairs. Most of the Franciscans were residing in Palestine and a very few of them resided in Egypt, Syria and Armenia. Some 531 friars served in the Holy Land between 1862 and 1889. Some of them spent a year or two in Palestine and then returned to their country. Other friars joined the Custody and stayed there permanently. Some 223 friars returned to their original countries in the foregoing period while 233 friars died.[18] Other figures collected in 1889 said that there were 414 friars[19] and in 1898, the number reached 483 friars.[20]
Franciscans converged around the major Holy Places of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth. Convents, schools, orphanages, clinics and vocational training centers were built around these holy shrines. Each convent had a superior -guardian- assisted by a number of friars, who all together formed an integrated and systematic convent unit affiliated with the Custos of the Holy Land who resided in the convent of St. Saviour in Jerusalem.
Centuries ago until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Latin Patriarchate was re-established and the Anglican bishopric was founded and Orthodox schools were built, the convents of the Franciscans and their annexes were the most effective Christian presence in the Holy Land.
2-The Franciscan convents:
Convents are friars’ homes and cells; the convents around the Holy Places enclosed the facilities that the Franciscans created to undertake their mission. From these convents, the Franciscans exercised their role in protecting and serving the Holy Places. They also hosted pilgrims in these homes, opened schools and health clinics. The most important convents in Palestine in 1898 according to Golubovich are as follows:[21]
A- The Convent of Mount Sion:
According to Franciscan historians, Franciscans dwelt in Mount Sion Convent during the time of St. Francis in 1219. However, what is historically confirmed is that the convent became the property of the Friars Minor in 1333-1336. The friars evacuated their convent on two occasions in 1523 and 1551. The three monotheist religions are now partners in the proprietorship of Mount Sion complex. The Christians have two convents belonging to the Benedictines and the Franciscans. The Jews have a synagogue. As for the Mount Sion Upper Room, it was transformed into a Muslim mosque, where religious services are prohibited for the followers of the three religions and where people are allowed just to visit it. The Franciscan friars felt bitter and sorry for losing the Cenacle Upper Room of Mount Sion and their first convent in the Holy Land. “The only protest against the injustice done to us in the past centuries were the tears and prayers and the pleadings of the poor Franciscans, who have never stopped knocking the doors of human and divine justice to restore their sacred treasure one day: the Cenacle Upper Rome of Mount Sion and the convent.”[22]
B – The Convent of St. Saviour:
The friars bought the Convent of St. Saviour from the Georgian monks in 1559. It is the largest and the most important Franciscan convent. The Custos of the Holy Land resides there. The parish church was built within the convent in 1882-1885. The convent also includes a school, an orphanage, a printing press, vocational workshops, and a library.
C – The Convent of the Holy Sepulcher:
This convent is located within the compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Friars have lived in the convent since 1240. The monks claimed its property in the mid-fourteenth century.
D – The Convent of Saint Catherine:
This convent is located in Bethlehem next to the Church of Nativity. The friars resided in the convent in the thirteenth century.
E – The Convent of the Annunciation:
The date when the Franciscans settled in Nazareth is not confirmed. However, travelers affirmed that friars were staying at the Nazareth convent at the end of the fourteenth century. The friars had to evacuate their convent several times and that included the year 1548. “They were forced to evacuate their convent on that year and designated a pious Christian, whose name is Issa, to guard their convent and the Church of the Annunciation. Issa was given the keys and was requested to keep two candles lit in the Church of the Annunciation at the expense of the Mount Sion Custos. In 1620, Custos Tomaso da Navona secured from Prince Fakhr al-Deen a permit to restore the convent and the church,”[23] and the church was rebuilt in 1730.
In addition to these five famous convents, there are 12 other convents with a history similar to that of the big five. The friars acquired possession of some of these convents at a later period. These convents are as follows:
1- Convent of the Flagellation in Jerusalem.
2- Convent of St. John in Ain Karim.
3- Convent of St. Mary’s Visitation in Ain Karim.
4- Convent of St. Clopas in Emmaus.
5- Convent of St. Nicodemus in al-Ramla.
6- Convent of St. Peter in Jaffa.
7- Convent of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor near Nazareth.
8- Convent of Cana of Galilee.
9- Convent of St. Peter in Tiberias.
10- Convent of Capernaum.
11- Convent of the Rosary in Haifa.
12- Convent of St. Francis of Assisi in Akre.
There are numerous other convents, shrines and monasteries where Franciscans stay for religious services on particular liturgical occasions, but they do not reside there.
3-The Franciscan parishes:
The history of the Custody of the Holy Land can be divided into four ages:[24]
The First Age is the age of the Crusaders from 1219 until the fall of Akre at the hands of the Mamluks in 1291.
The Second Age is the Arab age and extends from the date of the fall of Akre at the hands of the Mamluks until the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Turks (1291-1516).
The Third Age is the Turkish age, which extends from the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Turks until its fall at the hands of the British in World War I (1516-1917).
The Fourth Age is the modern age and extends from World War I in 1917 to-date.
The work of the Franciscans in the first age was confined to the care of pilgrims and the religious services for the Crusaders. In the second age, the Franciscans represented the Catholic Church in Palestine. In the third age, the importance of the Custody was further enhanced as the Holy See granted the Custos of the Holy Land the functions of the Head of the Catholic Mission and he wielded jurisdiction almost as great as that of a bishop. Parishes were formed at the end of the second age. In view of the pastoral efforts of the friars, “All the local Latins residing in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Ain Karim, Jaffa, and al-Ramla and in 30 other localities in Syria, Cyprus, Palestine and Egypt embraced Catholicism, at the hands of the Franciscans.”[25]
A Franciscan historian describes how the Franciscan parishes were formed as follows:[26] In the period falling between the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1274 and the Council of Florence in 1439, followers of some Eastern Churches made a collective return to Catholicism. In this period, the Franciscans did not carry out pastoral work because such work was the responsibility of the eastern priests and bishops, who were united with Rome. However, these groups did not have bishops or priests of the same eastern rites to care for them, once the trend of Church unity failed after the Council of Florence. Therefore, the Franciscans undertook this assignment. What encouraged them to do so was the tolerance, which the Christians enjoyed under the new Turkish regime compared with the Arab Mamluk regime. Thus the Franciscan pastoral activity increased.
Franciscan records of the Custody in Jerusalem, reported numerous cases of individual and collective conversion to Catholicism from 1555-1622. The most important of these were two records. The first was ‘the register of converts to Catholicism’ and the second was ‘the register of the converts and those who reconciled with the Catholic Church’. The first record points out that the first conversion occurred in Jerusalem in 1555 and 1562 by the return of a Nestorian group in Jerusalem to unity with Rome.
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith ‘Propaganda Fide’ was established in 1622 to coordinate the Catholic mission in the non-Catholic countries. Propaganda Fide found itself facing the real fact that there were parishes under the Custody of the Holy Land supervised by Franciscans. When some non-Franciscan missionaries tried to work in the areas of the Franciscan jurisdiction, the Franciscans protested on the strength of the fact that the pastoral responsibilities and rights were a Franciscan privilege. This has prompted the two sides to refer the case to Propaganda Fide in 1628. Propaganda Fide decided the following: “The Franciscans have acquired rights in the parishes where they exist. Other missionaries shall be prohibited, from the pastoral standpoint, from performing the liturgical services of the sacraments to the faithful, or performing any pastoral duties in these areas.”[27] Therefore, the year 1628 is regarded as the year of the establishment of the Franciscan parishes in Palestine from the legal standpoint.[28] The Franciscan pastoral performance was an established fact and increased for the following reasons:[29]
- Propaganda Fide would not be satisfied if the Franciscans wasted their time doing nothing or not doing pastoral work.
- Numerous monastic orders expressed the desire to work in Palestine. Thus the danger of replacing Franciscans with other more active and more resourceful orders was looming on the horizon. Faced with this danger, the Franciscan Generalate decided to take practical steps to strengthen the Custody of the Holy Land by providing it with qualified friars. Three colleges for teaching Arabic were opened. The General Franciscan Chapter of the Order decided in 1633 that Arabic and the history of the Eastern Churches should be in four of the Franciscan colleges’ curricula. In the seventeenth century, the Custody of the Holy Land opened similar colleges in Bethlehem, Aleppo, Damascus and al-Ramla. The last of these colleges, which taught Arabic, was the Saints Peter and Paul College opened in Harissa, Lebanon, in 1835.
The Franciscan pastoral movement continued its march in the Ottoman period and reached its peak in the nineteenth century. In 1694, the Custody of the Holy Land notified Propaganda Fide that there were 385 Latins in Bethlehem and that within 18 years, some 270 persons embraced Catholicism. The same report points out that similar conversions were made in Beit Jala and Beit Sahor. In 1674, the Franciscans settled in the village of Ain Karim. Four families from Bethlehem and Beit Jala requested that they reside in Ain Karim. Thus they constituted the nucleus of a prosperous and vital parish; later on an independent parish was formed there. In 1791, a part of the Orthodox parish of Akre joined the Catholic Church after years of contacts with the Franciscans and of receiving aid from them. An independent parish was formed there. In 1791, 220 Orthodox in Nazareth returned to Catholicism. The report submitted by the Custody to Propaganda Fide for the years 1717-1719 pointed out that there were 1112 Latins while a century later, the figure reached 3905. However, the statistics of 1868 pointed out that the number reached 5038.[30]
The latest statistics taken at the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century indicated a speedy growth in the Franciscan parishes as is shown in the following table:
Location
1889 Statistics[31]
1909 Statistics[32]
Jerusalem
2020
3491
Bethlehem
3564
5172
Ain Karim
177
-
Al-Ramla
75
115
Jaffa
621
1000
Nazareth
1206
1279
Cana of Galilee
126
69
Tiberias
18
130
Akre
132
10
Mjaidel
-
48
Total
7939
11335
4-Franciscan Charities:
Palestine is still suffering from the lack of housing until this very day, particularly within the walls of Old Jerusalem. The Custody of the Holy Land provided houses and apartments for new couples and poor families. For the Franciscan parish, the nineteenth century was the peak of receiving free housing or houses rented at token prices. If houses were lacking, the Custody of the Holy Land would rent the houses and distribute them to the faithful or pay part of the value of the rent to the owners. By doing so, the Custody of the Holy Land sought to assemble the largest possible number of faithful around the Holy Places. “In view of the prevailing conditions in the Holy Land, the Custody of the Holy Land was seeking to achieve the religious goal of preserving and reinforcing the Christian presence around the Holy Places. It is this existence which renders the Church alive in the land of Christ.”[33] The distribution of houses to the parishioners was not a profitable commercial deal for the Custody, but was a simultaneously humanitarian and ecclesiastical deed: “The pastoral housing project of distributing houses freely or at a token price complemented the ecclesiastical work followed at the Custody of the Holy Land. The aim of this pastoral project was to safeguard the small Catholic community.”[34] Most members of the parish benefited from these projects. “Most Catholics in Jerusalem are living in houses at the expense of the Custody of the Holy Land. The cost of these houses in addition to the foodstuffs and clothes distributed to the parishioners totaled 57,000 Francs in 1857.”[35] The number of the houses let for rent in 1890 totaled 388 inhabited by 402 families with a total number of 1,930 members.[36]
The program of distributing cheap houses to the Jerusalemites did not resolve their many complex problems. Therefore, the Custody of the Holy Land was compelled to pay the taxes due on them to the Ottoman government,[37] and provided them with bread. “Many Catholic families are living at the expense of the Custody of the Holy Land. In Jerusalem for example, 2,000 kilograms of bread is distributed weekly. There are a number of charitable societies which get their share of this weekly distribution.”[38]
Aid to the poor and the charitable societies were appropriated in the form of cash and in-kind aid and house rents, which claimed a substantial part of the budget of the Custody of the Holy Land. In 1857, out of a “Total budget of 1,170,797 Turkish piasters, 252,943 piasters were allocated to the poor and 32,530 piasters were allocated for the payment of the rent of houses, according to a report which the Custody of the Holy Land submitted to the commissariat of the Custody of the Holy Land in Paris.[39] The sources of financing the Custody are its commissariats, which are spread out in Paris and other European and American states and cities, the offerings directly given by the pilgrims in the Palestinian churches and shrines, and the revenues of the properties endowments.
5-Schools and orphanages:
The first school established by the Franciscan Fathers in Bethlehem was mentioned in the memoirs of traveler Johannes Cotwyck, who came to Jerusalem as a pilgrim in 1598. He found a “School for children in Bethlehem at the Convent of the Friars Minor, which was a school that existed earlier. The Bethlehem Christians followed the Greek liturgy and few of them are Latins. However, all of them had a good command of Latin, which they called the language of the Franks, and they learned the language when they were young. Older Bethlehem Christians performed the role of dragomans (translators) for the Friars Minor, monks and Western pilgrims. Therefore, the Bethlehem Christians care about teaching Latin to their children, who are taught the language by the friars so that they could supervise the works of the convent. According to the testimony of the Franciscans, they are still performing these two jobs actively and sincerely.”[40]
Incelli concludes from this and other episodes that a small and simple school was opened in Bethlehem in the early sixteenth century, or perhaps in the late fifteenth century.[41] The Franciscan General Chapter of Toledo in 1645 noted: “The Chapter decided that the sons of the translators and others who serve the convents in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth should be taught and raised in the Christian faith until they become nine years old. They should then be returned to their families. Moreover, they should be given a lunch for nourishment. However, they should go home in the evening for dinner.”[42]
Franciscan schools arose for the purpose of fulfilling a practical need, namely, to provide the Custody with an abundant number of Christians who knew a foreign language for the purpose of work in the convents and for rendering translation services to the pilgrims. In the seventeenth century, the Custody spent funds on 20 schools, as was mentioned in the report of the Custos Francesco da San Floro, in 1699. These schools were built around the convents and had a total of 188 students. Six of these schools were in Palestine and the rest were in Syria, Cyprus, Egypt and Istanbul. “The custos was to open a school in each convent on the hope that these schools would, sooner or later, become a source of good and knowledge.”[43] As for the subjects which these schools taught, Friar Bernardino Surio, who lived in Palestine from 1644-1647 noted “Our friars teach the children the Catholic faith and sciences. Thus the children succeeded their fathers as translators. In this, there was a benefit for their spiritual and material good.”[44] As for the Jerusalem school, someone else reported that the educational curricula included ecclesiastical singing, music, Italian, Latin, and Christian education.[45]
Schools were not upgraded in the eighteenth century. On the contrary, the number of students occasionally declined because of the turbulent public conditions and the spread of the plague, which prompted the friars to close down the schools out of fear of contagion. Moreover, the schools only provided work opportunities in the limited profession of translation. The schools did not qualify the graduates for a profession from which they could make a living. They viewed the schools from the perspective of religious and educational benefit only.[46] There were seven to ten schools in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt in the eighteenth century with some 168-354 students.[47]
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Custody of the Holy land enjoyed a period of prosperity and peace. It began to restore its convents and schools, improve the standard of education, transform the schools from private to public, and to open these schools to all segments of the people. Until 1841, only males could go to school. The first girls’ school was opened in Jerusalem and then in Nazareth and afterwards in Bethlehem. The General Franciscan Minister appointed an inspector general of the schools. His duty was to ensure the prosperity of the schools, organizing them and increasing their number.
In 1846, Pope Pius IX recommended that “the schools existing under the jurisdiction of the Custody of the Holy Land be preserved with all available means and that each big parish be provided with a boys school and another for girls.”[48] Fruitful cooperation was forged between the Custody of the Holy Land and the Latin Patriarchate in the educational fields. In 1848, Saint Joseph sisters were entrusted with supervising the first schools in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Bethlehem. The Franciscans welcomed the congregation of Friars de la Salle. They viewed their school as a parochial one belonging to the Jerusalem parish. They also participated in paying the expenses of the school. In 1871, the Franciscan sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary joined to work in the girls’ schools in Palestine. According to the official Franciscan statistics, there were 54 schools in all the territories under the jurisdiction of the Custody of the Holy Land in 1895-1896, including 36 schools for males and 18 for females.[49]
It was customary for the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land to search for the orphans in their parishes and to give them to rich families to raise them at the expense of the Custody, which provided the family with everything that it needed for the life of the orphan. There were some 250 to 300 orphans who were cared for by the Custody each year.[50] The advent of nuns’ congregations to Palestine in the second half of the nineteenth century made it possible to gather the orphans in private orphanages run by the nuns. In 1889, the Franciscans supported two orphanages, one for the boys with 46 tenants and the other for the girls with 40 tenants.[51] After the orphans completed the elementary phase of education, they went to learn a trade in the workshops of the Custody of the Holy Land.
6-Vocational workshops:
In 1700, the Franciscans started at the Convent of St. Saviour workshops for several vocations with the aim of securing employment and income for the needy families and achieving some kind of self-sufficiency for the Franciscan convents. These vocational workshops played the role of the vocational schools. In 1879, 50 workers were trained in these workshops in the field of carpentry, blacksmithing, printing and book-binding.[52] Golubovich said at the end of last Century that there were 150 people who were trained in the said vocations and others.[53] In the sixteenth century, the Franciscans introduced wood and porcelain works to Bethlehem. These handicrafts reached fame in the era of the Franciscan Guardian of the Bethlehem Convent, Bernardino Amici.[54] The wood and porcelain handicrafts were regarded as part of the important economic enterprises in Bethlehem as pilgrims bought them when they visited Bethlehem, and the other Holy Places.
7-The printing press:
Istanbul did not allow the Friars Minor to establish a printing press in Jerusalem until the middle of the nineteenth century. This ban was applied to all, not to the Franciscans alone. The period of Egyptian rule in Palestine (1831-1840) was one of relative freedom and openness. The Armenians established their own printing press in 1833, the Jews in 1841, and the Friars Minor in 1846. The Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph I paid the cost of the printing press as a contribution to the Custody.[55] The printing press was supplied with Arabic and Latin fonts. Its first production was on 27 January 1847 when 1,000 copies were printed of the Arabic alphabet and distributed to students. Some 1,500 copies were printed of the first Arabic 87-page catechism written by Cardinal Roberto Belarmino under the title ‘Christian Catechism’[56]; the book was printed in August 1847.[57]
The publications printed by the printing press became diverse. It printed biblical studies, theology, philosophy, apologetic theology, liturgy, history, geography, eastern and western languages, art and mathematics.[58] The number of titles printed between 1847 and 1888 totaled 408 books.[59] The number of copies printed in the years 1876-1888 totaled 305,765.[60]
Among the reasons for the establishment of the printing press was to “work for the spiritual good of the Catholics in the Holy Land.”[61] This is where the importance of printing the catechism becomes evident, “all the more so because it was not the first book that was printed in our printing press. However, what is more important is the fact that it was the first printing press production done in Palestine, although there were other printing presses in Jerusalem which did not produce one single Arabic book.”[62] Father Arce concludes by affirming that the “Arab publications constituted the larger part of the achievements of the printing press to the point where we could say that it was an Arab printing press.”[63]
8-Medical and pharmaceutical services:
A visitor to the libraries of the Custody of the Holy Land can find many books on medicine and pharmacology alongside theological and biblical books. The presence of the old pharmacy with all its equipment at the Convent of St. Saviour in Jerusalem confirms that the Franciscans practiced medicine and pharmacy in the past centuries, although canon law prohibited the clerics from the exercise of the profession of medicine and surgery without papal approval.[64]
However, for the Friars Minor, medical knowledge and the treatment of the sick was part of their religious mission. Therefore, the General Chapter held in 1292 encouraged the study of medicine and pharmacy. After the Crusades, the friars exercised medicine and pharmacy. “The friars found themselves morally committed to such practices.”[65] In 1352, the Franciscans built a 200-bed hostel and hospital to serve the pilgrims. The hospital was built at the expense of a women benefactor called Sofia de Archangelis.[66] The Holy See implicitly allowed the friars to practice medicine as it entrusted them with the management of the said hospital. They were officially allowed to do so by Pope Clement X in 1670 with the papal bull ‘Cum Sicut Dilectus.’[67]
The friars rendered their medical services to the various citizens at the convents and outside, i.e. in the health clinics. Governors and Muslim clergy often asked these friars for remedies.[68] The Franciscans also offered the medicine free of charge to all those who needed it. Thus they were ahead of their age vis-à-vis the idea of health insurance.[69] Among the medical services that were available was that the pharmacy of the Convent of St. Saviour was supplied with special laboratories for the synthesis of the medicines whose raw material was imported from Europe, India and America. A garden for growing local medicinal plants was attached to the pharmacy. One of the friars, Antonio Mensani da Cuna, who died in 1729, synthesized a famous medicine for the treatment of wounds and ulcers known as the Balsam of Jerusalem ‘Balsamo di Gerusalemme.’ The medicine consisted of 40 materials. The said friar prescribed this remedy for 24 years to his patients. Medical books and lexicons described it as one of the unique and healing medicines.[70]
The medical services of the Friars Minor were crystal clear when the plague struck Palestine. When the friars learned about the news of the plague, they closed down their convents out of fear of the aggravation of the contagion while others were allowed to move outside the convents among the plague-stricken patients. In six centuries, the plague claimed the lives of some 1,000 Franciscans. [71]
Health clinics and pharmacies were closed down and stopped offering their services to the public in the early twentieth century as a result of the spread of health awareness and the increased number of doctors. The health clinics and pharmacies of the Custody of the Holy Land were transformed into museums that narrate the story of medicine and pharmacy in Palestine.[72]
Conclusion
Within five successive centuries, from the mid-fourteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, the Franciscans and some Carmelites in Haifa represented the Catholic Church in Palestine and safeguarded the Christian existence in these Holy Lands under occasionally difficult conditions. The re-establishment of the Latin Patriarchate in the middle of the nineteenth century was a new formula for Catholic action. The Patriarchate was to surge ahead in fields of work, which do not contradict with the jurisdiction of the Custody, as it would focus its efforts on the countryside not on the cities where there were Franciscan parishes. Outside Palestine, the Patriarchate will communicate with the Christians across Jordan, whom the Custody of the Holy Land did not include in its missionary projects. The Franciscans will continue to represent the Catholic Church in the Holy Places as part of the Status Quo, which defines the rights of the Christian denominations in the Holy Places.
In the twentieth century, the Franciscans kept intact their educational, charitable and vocational establishments, which were flourishing in the nineteenth century and developed other modern institutions that were commensurate with the twentieth-century developments. Franciscan archeologists led intensive campaigns in 33 archeological sites and locations in the years 1894-1978 in Jordan and Palestine.[73] The Holy Places and shrines, under the supervision of the Custody, became not only tourist and archeological sites, but also churches of living stones, and where one can see that the Holy Land entrusted to the friars had been transformed through centuries of continuous presence into a living liturgy.[74]