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 are in the Curia of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem. We present a panel of Italian workmanship, painted in tempera and probably dating back to the 16th century. As you can see, the panel is the result of the union of two axes. It has been assumed, due to the difference in style between the lower and upper parts, that the lower register belonged to a dossal, while the upper part would have been added after the relocation of the work. The lower register depicts the Deesis, an iconographic theme typical of Byzantine art, showing the figure of Christ the Judge, accompanied on either side by the Madonna and Saint John the Baptist, who intercede for mankind at the moment of the Last Judgement. Among them, we recognise St Francis and St Dominic on the left, and St Catherine of Alexandria on the right. The upper register depicts God the Father surrounded by a cloud and the four evangelists, while the episode of the Annunciation is depicted on the sides." Br ALESSANDRO CONIGLIO, ofm Professor Studium Biblicum Franciscanum – Jerusalem "So the theme of this panel is déesis, or 'intercession'. The task of Mary and John the Baptist is to bring the prayers of humanity before Christ, in order to obtain from him the blessings and graces that our poor humanity needs. This representation reminds us of a prayer to Our Lady which the Saint of Assisi composed as the single antiphon in his Office of the Passion and which reads as follows: "Holy Virgin Mary, among all the women of the world, there is none like you. You are the daughter and handmaid of the most high King, Father of heaven. You are the mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ. You are the bride of the Holy Spirit. Pray for us, with St. Michael the archangel, and all the powers of heaven and all the saints, to your most holy and beloved Son, our Lord and Master, Amen." (FF 281). Mary is invoked by Francis as the one who intercedes with the divine Son, by virtue of her very special merits. Of Mary, in fact, Francis describes the unique relationships that bind her to the Trinity. Mary has power over the heart of God because she is daughter and servant of the heavenly Father, mother of Jesus, and spouse of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is clear that God cannot resist her prayer, because God, who is a relationship of love in his deepest being, has established with Mary, as with no other creature, a unique relationship of love, paternal, filial and spousal! Yet, from a writing addressed to the Poor Clares of San Damiano, that is, to Clare of Assisi and her first companions, we see that Francis believes that these same relationships of love can be established between each soul and the Persons of the Holy Trinity. In fact, Francis says of them that "by divine inspiration, you have made yourselves daughters and handmaidens of the most high and supreme King, the heavenly Father, and have married the Holy Spirit, choosing to live according to the perfection of the holy Gospel" (FF 139). Therefore, the soul that follows Jesus in the evangelical life is a new Mary, daughter and servant of God the Father, and spouse of God the Spirit, and thus enters into the great chorus of intercession for the needs of the world that rises from the Holy Church to the Trinity." Read More