Fonds JM-ASCTS/CR/Cenacolo - Saint Francis ad Cœnaculum Convent, Custody of the Holy Land

Global extent: 21 files; 3 selected and described files

This fonds is part of the Archives of Religious Houses (or Archives of convents) held by the Historical Archive of the Custody of the Holy Land.

The Monastery of St. Francis ad Coenaculum (familiarly known as the Little Cenacle) is located on Mount Zion, near the place where the Last Supper is commemorated and where, in the 14thcentury, the Friars Minor built the first monastery in the city of Jerusalem.

The Cenacle (from Latin cēnāculum "dining room", later spelt coenaculum and semantically drifting towards "upper room"), also known as the "Upper Room", is a room in the David's Tomb Compound in Jerusalem, traditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper.
In the 1330s, it passed into the custody of the Franciscan Order of Friars who managed the structure until 1524. At that time Ottoman authorities took possession of the Cenacle converting it into a mosque. The Franciscans were completely evicted from their surrounding buildings in 1550.
The friars betook themselves to the nearby bakery, where they lived until 1560 when they transferred to the Georgian monastery El Amud, called St. Saviour's.
On March 29, 1936 the Franciscans returned to within a few yards of the Cenacle, having bought the old bakery from the Dejani family that held the Cenacle and transformed it into the Convent of St. Francis, and the Church ad Coenaculum.

Structure of the fonds: global extent: 21 files; Feb. 1926 feb. - 3 Sept. 2000
Series A, Convent’s chapter. Global extent: 1 file; 18 Aug. 1986 - 8 Feb. 1993
Series B, Correspondence. Global extent: 1 file; 21 Dec. 1980 - 9 Dec. 1993
Series C, Holy Masses. Global extent: 2 files; 23 Apr. 1936 - 5 Jan. 1971
Series D, Chronicles and memoirs. Global extent: 17 files; Feb. 1926 - 3 Sept. 2000
D-I, Various memoirs. Global extent: 5 files; 17 May 1948 - 14 June 1962
D-II, Registers of pilgrim priest. Global extent: 7 files; 9 Jan. 1971 - 3 Sept. 2000
D-III, Registers of pilgrims. Global extent: 1 file; Feb. 1926 - [mid XXth century]
D-IV, Chronicles. Global extent: 4 files; 5 July 1960 - Dec. 1997

The collection is closed.

Subject to the authorization of the Historical Archive of the Custody of the Holy Land (Jerusalem).

L’Archivio storico della Custodia di Terra Santa, Inventario (1230 – 1970), a cura di Andrea Maiarelli, Tomo III, Fondazione Terra Santa - Milano Edizioni Terra Santa - Milano, 2012, p. 875-877.

ISAD(G), Second Edition, Ottawa 2000.

Catalogue prepared on 2018

http://www.custodia.org/default.asp?id=1138; https://web.archive.org/web/20080915021728/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/pope/10GPen/12/12GPsh05.html#; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenacle; https://www.proterrasancta.org/en/inauguration-of-the-new-monastery-of-st-francis-ad-coenaculum/

Inventory of a range of 3 items from the Saint Francis ad Cœnaculum Convent’s records (1926-[mid XXth century]), held by the Historical Archive of the Custody of the Holy Land (Jerusalem), made and translated by Maria Chiara Rioli, 2017-2018.