The history of the parish of Jerusalem through the eyes of a young Arab friar
As part of his thesis for a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, Fra Noor Tamas, a young Iraqi Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, studied the history of the Latin parish of Jerusalem. He emphasizes the pastoral apostolate of the friars over the centuries and how this resonates with him. He also explains to us why the Terra Sancta Museum will be at the service of the local Christian community.
Fra Noor, how did you decide to work on this subject and why?
What inspired me to write this thesis on the history of the parish of Jerusalem was my experience with the local people here, visiting them in their homes and going into the families to give communion to the sick. I wanted to understand the people I am with, the people I have in front of me and their history. I also wanted to find out how the history of a community of believers can also teach us things. We have the true stones of the Holy Places but also the living stones of the Holy Land.
What documents did you base your work on?
I consulted many documents. We have original documents which are in the Custody’s Archives, manuscript sources but also various historical documents such as the register of the families of the parish that amount to a total of four volumes. We also have the parish Archive which has more modern books, some dating back to 1850. There is also the first register of the sacraments, a rare book which is evidence of the first conversions and the first sacraments. Naturally, I worked with the monumental work by Golubovitch on the history of the Custody and its relations with the Propaganda Fide. The documents were in Italian, Latin and Arabic.
Your work starts with the friars arriving at the Cenacle, but when did the parish of Jerusalem come into being?
I quickly tried to give some historical notes of their first apostolate, a pastoral work with the Western merchants, the Venetians for example, who did not have a stable clergy linked to this land. The real turning point was the first Latin conversion recorded and the arrival at St Saviour which happened almost at the same time, around 1555 and 1558. In my eyes, the Latin community started well before it was officially erected.
Precisely, the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith was created by Gregory XV in 1622 to support missionary work in China.
Yes, but more than 70 years had already gone by. In the meantime, the Custody had established a fairly clear embryonal parish structure. The Propaganda Fide formalized the work that had already been started; it was an official recognition by the Holy See (in 1628). The first baptisms I found took place in around 1617. Before that there was no register, but there had definitely been conversions. We also have to know that the first registers were only linked to the initial sacraments.
Old photos of the parish and Church of St. Savior
Who were the first Latin Christians in Jerusalem and what is the key to their expansion?
Most of them had converted from other Oriental Churches or, later on were also Turks and all the people who lived in this area. To give you an idea, in 1664, the sources counted 68 faithful. The extensions of the church also give us the main trends of how the community flourished. The 19th century is one of these. In 1885, the new and more spacious church was inaugurated. The faithful built this parish with their hands. The parish was not only at the disposal of the Latins but all Catholic Christians. In the writings, we find many letters that show these relations between the Latin parish priest – a Francsican – and the faithful of the Coptic Catholic, the Syro-Catholic but also the Armenian Catholic Churches. When their priest was absent, the Latin parish priest was in charge of administering the community, handing out documents etc..
Does this make an impression on you?
Yes, these relations show how the Latins and the friars were open to the other Churches. We know that the Franciscans often helped the Maronites, but I find it interesting to discover other relations with the other Oriental Catholic Churches, founded between the 17th and 19th centuries (the Coptic Catholic Church, the Syro-Catholic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church). The Franciscans were open to all those in need, including Muslims. We still find this today in the Franciscan charities, in the schools, for example, where no distinction is ever made between Christians and Muslims. At times, most of the pupils and teachers are Muslims, or even Jews as in the Magnificat, the school of music. For me, this is the identity of a real church in mission which embraces everyone, which accepts everyone, which walks on the same path with everyone to announce the Gospel as the Second Vatican Council said.
You are a young Arab friar from Iraq, how do these historical discoveries fuel your vocation?
An essential point for me is the influence of the Franciscans. They are the fathers of Latin Catholicism in the Middle East and we know that they opened schools of a high standard very early on, as well as a Franciscan printing press which printed the first books in Arabic (books to teach reading and writing, the catechism and languages). These books went beyond Jerusalem to the whole region. With these manuals, the missionary friars also learnt Arabic to set off on their missions to Lebanon, Syria, and Minor Armenia etc. For me the first Arab vocations of the Custody in 1850 are the fruit of this influence. The friars brought what was positive of Western culture to give even more substance to the Oriental Christian culture. And it is not only a question of culture or education. The Franciscans tried to give the best that there could be for the local Christians and it was not about survival but improving the quality of their lives. This is how the number of Christians increased.
It is often emphasized that the Franciscans are the custodians of the Holy Places.
In my eyes, it is important never to separate the parish of the Franciscans or the history of the local community of the Franciscans because they have always walked together , they have never separated even though at the beginning it seemed that the Franciscans had come only for the Holy Places. When I see a Latin faithful on a Sunday at Mass, I see the fruit of what the friars sowed four centuries ago. Their involvement in the parishes and in the schools opened a new horizon and changed their history. Without contact with the local people, you remain serving stones that tell the story of the Gospel but are nevertheless stones. It is souls that have to be evangelized.
What do you think of the project of the Terra Sancta Museum?
Over the last few years, through the Terra Santa Museum, the Custody has tried to highlight the heritage of the local community making it a point of reference to understand the history of these people. It is highly appreciable that the Christians are able to see traces of their ancestors. When you understand your origin you become more settled in hat land, and it is precisely this that will help the Christians understand their mission here today. When I can understand how my grandparents experienced persecution, the war with the Franciscans, i.e. the Church, as a Christian of Jerusalem, I continue to live with my Church in this land while there are all the problems we know. I remember having read that in past centuries, when there was any attack on Jerusalem, all the Christians sought refuge in the convent. They would stay for two, three or four days, eating and drinking with the friars. This shows you how St Saviour was a mother convent, a mother for the whole of the local Church. At times, today we see St Saviour in its immense glory like the structure of a bell-tower, but the glory of St Saviour is that it was a mother for her children. The museum has to hand on this story and so with the help of the Church and the help of God we will continue together to bear witness to Christ Risen.
Friar Noor Tamas and Friar Narcyz Klimas, archivist of the Custody of the Holy Land
