On Thursday 3 October, the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (SBF) and the Studium Theologicum Jerosolimitanum (STJ) celebrated the start of the new 2024-2025 academic year. Students, lecturers and collaborators took part in the Solemn Mass in St Saviour’s church in Jerusalem, to consecrate a new year of studying and specializing in the Holy Scriptures.
The tensions in the country becoming harsher prevented the arrival in Jerusalem of Mons. František Trstenský, Bishop of Spiš and former student of the SBF, who should have presided over the celebration.
A special year
The celebrations of the centenary of the SBF have recently come to an end. Founded on 7 January 1924 at the convent of the Flagellation, the SBF has been and continues to be a unique place to study in depth the Holy Scriptures in the land where they were revealed. The various cultural events, organized during the past year, allowed celebrating the goals reached and consolidated the identity of the Studium and its belonging to the Custody of the Holy Land.
A continuing mission
Fra Rosario Pierri, dean of the SBF, emphasized the importance of the Studium in the context f the Franciscan mission.
“Our predecessors matured their awareness of being custodians of the Holy Land in the light of the Holy Scriptures and the local historic traditions. Nothing that concerns the Holy Land is to be indifferent to us, at the same time, we must also absolve our evangelizing mission in the cultural and professional education we offer our students.”
Witnesses of the faith
The Dean also wanted to recall the martyrs of Damascus, who will be canonized in Rome next week. They represent an indelible oath of the Franciscan charism in the Holy Land.
“Their sacrifice and that of many other of our confreres who died to witness their faith in Christ is not a separate event from our activity but, on the contrary, represents its vital life-blood. Their testimony becomes a blessing for us all and for our academic institutions.”
At the end of the Mass, at a time of community prayer, the consecration of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum to the Immaculate Virgin Mary was recalled, so that these two institutions can be guided in the “Praying Study of the Holy Scriptures.”
Lucia Borgato
