The conflicts in the Middle East create regular upheaval. But over the past 800 years, two facets have remained stable: the presence of the Franciscans as guardians of the Christian shrines in the Holy Land and their ministry to Christians in the region.
Sharing that mission is the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, D.C., seen as a hidden gem in the nation’s capital.
For the past 125 years, the Monastery has featured replicas of many Holy Land shrines for hard-pressed American Catholics who have not been able to make an actual pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This past year, the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians has largely halted pilgrimages, creating difficulties for the small and hard-pressed Christian community there, which relies on tourism for survival.
But as 2025 dawned, new hope emerged for the Christians in the Holy Land, notes Fr. Ramzi Sidawi, OFM, guardian for the Washington Monastery for the past three-and-a-half years.
Fr. Ramzi, a Jerusalem native, notes that the Monastery remains “the connection and the bridge between the Holy Land and the United States.” The Monastery describes itself as an oasis of peace and hope for the Holy Land.
While that D.C.-Jerusalem connection remains unstable, accessibility was even more limited when the Monastery first began in the Brookland section of Washington, where it is neighbors with the Catholic University of America and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
At the time of the Monastery’s founding, notes Fr. Ramzi, “It was difficult to visit the Holy Land. It took 90 days. They had to go via ships. So, the idea was, ‘Why not bring the Holy Land to America?'”
So popular replicas of shrines in the Holy Land were built to precise specifications in Washington. Visitors to the Monastery, he says, “feel like they are in the Holy Land.”
The Monastery also organizes pilgrimages to the Holy Land, a ministry which fell off considerably in the past year. But the hope is that those will make a comeback as a possible opening to peace emerges.
“With the ceasefires, we hope everything will be better and pilgrimages will resume,” says Fr. Ramzi, who spoke as the Israeli cabinet approved the first phase of a ceasefire agreement in January. The desire for peace is an integral witness of the Franciscans in the Holy Land. “We are a presence of peace and dialogue. We know it is a difficult situation. We are there to witness the value of dialogue and peace,” he says.
He notes that the Christian presence in the land where Jesus walked is often threatened. A pivotal Christian city is Bethlehem, which has been closed off to tourism over the past year, harming the Palestinian Christians who rely on tourism to make their living. Many Christians, caught between ongoing conflicts among Jews and Muslims, have gone abroad in search of work and peace.
That exodus concerns Pope Francis, who has said, “We will not resign ourselves to imagine a Middle East without Christians.”
The Franciscans work to stem the tide of migration. They support schools and missions and care for refugees and other needy people throughout the region.
The Holy Land Franciscans currently provide ongoing emergency funds; support 29 Catholic parishes, four homes for orphans and three academic institutions; operate schools for Christians, Jews, and Muslims; assist in relocating Christian families and rehabilitate destroyed homes and provide senior care facilities in Bethlehem and Nazareth. They also educate future friars.
At the Monastery Shrine in Washington, the Franciscans host pilgrims. While it is not a parish, a community has emerged around the Monastery, with regular Mass and cultural events, including a springtime tulip celebration and monthly organ concerts.
The Washington Monastery boasts more than 50,000 annual visitors, 42 acres of gardens and full-sized shrine replicas, and regular lectures and workshops. The gardens provide about 6,000 pounds of produce which are distributed to the city’s poor every year.
The Monastery and its grounds include replicas of Holy Land shrines connected with the life of Jesus and the Catholic Church. It offers replicas and reproductions of the place of the Annunciation in Nazareth; the Bethlehem Grotto of the Nativity; the altar erected above the spot where Christ was crucified on Mount Calvary; the Holy Sepulcher and the chapel of the angel in front of the tomb.
Underneath the Monastery is a reconstruction of the underground catacombs of Rome. Outside, the monastery church is surrounded by a Rosary Portico with chapels depicting the mysteries of the rosary. The portico contains nearly 200 plaques with the “Hail Mary” rendered in different ancient and modern languages. Small chapels for each of the 14 Stations of the Cross form a ring about the Monastery’s lower formal gardens.
The gardens include a shrine to St. Anne and reproductions of the 12th-century Crusader chapel that sits above the place where Christ ascended into heaven; the tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Franciscan Chapel of the Portiuncula (Our Lady of the Angels).
More information about the Monastery can be obtained at https://myfranciscan.org/
