JERUSALEM — It all started more than 800 years ago when an army of gallant, if ill-prepared knights, set out from their castle in Sepphoris in Lower Galilee to rescue a damsel in distress. Queen Eschiva of Ibelin, the wife of King Raymond III of Tripoli, was trapped in Tiberias, a walled city on the freshwater Sea of Galilee being besieged by Saladin.

During the fatal Battle of the Horns of Hattin that took place atop an extinct volcano nearby in early July 1187 that doomed army of knights in their heavy suits of armor were annihilated by the Ayyubid sultan’s more agile calvary of Islamic fighters known as mujahideen.

This marked the end of the first Crusader kingdom and the loss of the True Cross, a relic said to have been the crucifix on which Jesus was martyred more than 11 centuries earlier.

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With the Crusaders killed or exiled, many of their holy sites were abandoned. In 1217, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone — better known as St. Francis of Assisi who had founded the Franciscan Order in 1209 — established the Custody of the Holy Land to protect those churches and monasteries. By 1342, half a century after demise of the second Crusader kingdom, a series of papal bulls had enshrined the Franciscans as the Vatican’s official custodians of these holy sites.

And so they remain today, a devout order of brown-cloaked priests headquartered at the Monastery of Saint Saviour just inside the New Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem’s historic Christian Quarter. Poor in numbers and with an ever-dwindling Arabic-speaking community of the faithful, the monks are rich in tradition as well as real estate.

The sanctuaries include the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the site where Catholics believe Jesus was executed, buried and resurrected; the Basilica of the Agony (also called the Church of All Nations), where Jesus spent his last night located on the nearby Mount of Olives; the Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem, adjoining the Greek Orthodox and Armenian cathedral where Mary gave birth; and the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was pregnant.

In recent decades, the Franciscans having greatly expanded their outreach beyond churches and historic schools like Jerusalem’s Terra Sancta College and La Salle College Des Freres. Their efforts have included building attractive websites for their holy sites, opening the Terra Sancta Museum and the “Experience of Resurrection,” a virtual-reality experience about Jesus’ final week and building the first swimming pool in Jerusalem’s historic Old City.

Having weathered the pandemic, during which no tourists were admitted to Israel and hence no offerings were contributed, the Custodians of the Holy Land now face the grim challenge of administering to their flock during the current war in Gaza.

Once again, Christian pilgrims cannot reach or visit holy sites. Formerly crowded with pilgrims, churches remain open for now — but largely empty.

The faithful in Gaza have been made refugees. Gaza City’s Holy Family Church — the only remaining Catholic parish in the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim coastal enclave of 2.3 million — is sheltering those displaced from further north as the Israel Defense Force battles Hamas terrorists. Some 200 newly-homeless people are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the church hall.

By contrast, Jerusalem’s eerie silence is interrupted only by the roar of fighter jets, the clang of incoming rocket alerts on mobile phones and the boom of distant explosions as the Iron Dome continues to intercept projectiles launched towards the Gaza Strip. While most shops are closed and the city remains semi-deserted, the hotels are full of Israeli civilians evacuated from Gaza periphery communities. Apart from stores selling essential goods, businesses are closed. So too are schools and many offices.

No Pilgrims AMID Calls For PEACE

The Franciscans, in a statement, has asked people to “suspend pilgrimages and wait until the situation is safe again.”

Following the outbreak of the conflict, Pierbattista Pizzaballa the Latin Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem who was recently elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Francis, signed a statement in which, in addition to calling for a de-escalation of the conflict, emphasized the importance of preserving the status quo regarding the holy sites. This is a set of rules regulating the use of the main holy sites that was first enacted in 1759 during the Ottoman period.

Pizzaballa has even offered himself in exchange for the Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas following their surprise Oct. 7 attack that are now being held in Gaza. Some 130 people were kidnapped and about a dozen of them are believed to be children. More than 1,300 people from Israel, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Thailand, Brazil and other countries were killed in that assault — many of them shot in cold blood at a music festival or massacred inside their home.

“I am ready for an exchange, anything, if this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home. No problem. There is total willingness on my part,” said Pizzaballa, who oversees activities for the estimated 300,000 Catholics in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Cyprus. “The first thing to do is to try to win the release of the hostages, otherwise there will be no way of stopping [an escalation]. We are willing to help, even me personally.”

The same concern was reiterated in a joint statement by the patriarchs and heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem. Christian leaders have raised their voices together “to advocate for the cessation of all violent and military activities” and “condemn any acts that target civilians.”

Meanwhile, the Custody of the Holy Land issued a statement on Oct. 10 inviting all the faithful to “pray and fast for peace.” The Franciscans, the statement said, called on Christians to “pray for all the victims, especially the civilians and the hostages. And for their families. Let us pray so that the hatred, anger, and fear that generate violence go out in hearts. Let us pray so that the international community fosters initiatives of mediation and peace, especially in protecting civilians.”

At the moment, there is no news of specific prayer initiatives, given the state of emergency that discourages gatherings. The patriarch himself has suspended official entry ceremonies into dioceses. However, at ordinary liturgies, there is a greater intensification of prayers for peace.

A week ago, the Franciscans’ daily procession in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher concluded with a specific prayer for peace in the Holy Land.

“For more than seven centuries, the Franciscans, in times of war or peace, of excavation or work, have visited every day the places of the passion of Jesus,” the president of the Holy Sepulcher, Brother Stephane, explained after the prayer. “Here, Christ has risen! Here, he has defeated the world! Today, we wanted our prayer to be particularly focused on asking for peace for this land, which is now being torn apart once again, so that everyone can live in this land in peace and in safety.”

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto and moved to Jerusalem in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.