Not everyone knows that Mary is the patron saint of the Franciscan order. But why this importance of Our Lady for the order? We will discover this through a selection of objects from the collections of the Custody of the Holy Land that will be displayed in the future historical section of the Terra Santa Museum. The museum, which will be located in the Convent of St. Saviour in Jerusalem, will be a place to rediscover the history of the Franciscans in the Holy Land and their devotion to the Mother of God. Father Stéphane Milovitch, director of the Custody's Cultural Heritage Office, and Father Alessandro Coniglio, professor at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, will accompany us on this in-depth study. Br STÉPHANE MILOVITCH, ofm Director of the Cultural Heritage Office - Custody of the Holy Land "Today we present a liturgical object that has fallen into disuse, a silver foil peace made in 1561. The peace, also called "osculatorium", is an object adopted by the liturgy in the 12th century that was kissed by the celebrant before communion. The peace came to Jerusalem from the island of Rhodes and an inscription on the object says that it was made at the behest of three Franciscan friars. The scene depicted is possibly derived from an engraving or painting and depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned under a canopy, between St Francis and St Ludwig of Toulouse. It has been assumed that this object was made in France or Venice, because of the iconographic setting similar to Venetian Renaissance paintings." Br ALESSANDRO CONIGLIO, ofm Professor Studium Biblicum Franciscanum – Jerusalem "This beautiful peace depicts, as we have heard, two Franciscan saints, the father St Francis and St Ludwig Bishop in the act of venerating the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son. Francis' devotion to Mary Most Holy was always sincere, so much so that Thomas of Celano informs us that "in her honour he sang special praises, raised prayers, offered affections so many and such that human tongue could not express them" (2Cel 198). Among these prayers raised by Francis to the Mother of God, one stands out, which is almost a little treatise on Marian theology: it is known as the Salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary and goes as follows: "Hail Lady, holy Queen, holy Mother of God, Mary, who is a virgin made Church and chosen by the most holy heavenly Father, who consecrated you together with his most holy beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete; you in whom was and is every fullness of grace and every good. Hail, his palace, Hail, his tabernacle, Hail, his house. Hail, his robe, Hail, his handmaid, Hail, his Mother. And I greet you all, holy virtues which by the grace and illumination of the Holy Spirit are infused into the hearts of the faithful, so that from infidels you may make them faithful to God" (FF 259-260). What stands out in this prayer is the series of epithets that the Saint reserves for the "Virgin made Church": palace, tabernacle, house, clothing, handmaid and Mother... Mary, carrying the Son of God, was the place where God made himself present in the world, as happened in the old covenant, in the tent of the meeting and in the temple of Jerusalem. As God's true dwelling place in the world, Mary clothed the Son of God with our humanity, and thus generated him in human history as a true mother. Mary is truly the hypostatisation of the Church, her personification: in her, the most eminent member of the Church, she recognises her own perfect image and the full realisation of her mystery: just as Mary generated the Son of God, remaining a virgin, so the Church generates the children of God, while remaining the immaculate spouse of the Lamb." Read More