The Catholics of the Holy Land and Egypt

Abstract

THE HOLY SEPULCHRE CONTESTED In 1808 a great fire once again struck the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, destroying the dome over the rotunda. Afterwards a bitter controversy arose over the question of which church should have the ‘right’ to make repairs. Since Catholic influence was in decline in Istanbul at this time, Mahmut II issued a firman in favour of the Orthodox, whose architect, during the process of restoration, demolished the Latin Chapel of the Angels and many of the tombs of the Latin Kings of Jerusalem. In 1829 the Armenians petitioned the sultan for access to the Holy Sepulchre and to the Church of the Nativity. The Porte agreed, and at the expense of the Franciscans the Armenians were allotted space and permitted to hold services. A Latin missionary, writing in 1831, commented that the Franciscan Custodian had spent the last ten years in Istanbul attempting to ward off attacks upon Latin holdings in Palestinian churches. The Turks stabled their horses on the roof above the Franciscan residence. He complained that the Franciscan dormitory was hot and stuffy in the summer and freezing in the winter, while along with the cold came floods. In despair he concluded, ‘If the French government does not take effective measures, I think it will be impossible for the Latins to hold on to the possessions they still have.’ The occupation of Palestine by Ibrahim Pasa's Egyptians in 1832 proved more helpful to the Franciscans than anything France was able to do.