Shortly after the collapse of the Crusader States in the late thirteenth century, small bands of Franciscan friars traveled to Jerusalem to undertake a daunting task: the renewal of a Latin Christian presence in the Holy Land. Courting patronage from the monarchs and pontiffs of Europe and cooperation from the Mamluk sultans of Egypt, the friars succeeded in their project. Forming the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land c.1333, they gained not only important rights at many of the Holy City’s Christian shrines but also ownership of plots of property—with gardens, cisterns, and residences—first on Mt. Sion in Jerusalem but then later in Bethlehem and Ramla.

Beyond significantly marking a new phase in Latin Christian relations with the Levant, this establishment of the Franciscan Custody demonstrates the social fluidity of the Late Medieval Mediterranean. In uprooting themselves from the Latin West to reside in the Islamic world of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Franciscans dramatically altered their social dynamics with numerous parties—rising in standing in the eyes of some, falling to a minority status in the eyes of others, and taking on social relations with many whom they would never have encountered without making the transit across the sea.

With generous funding from ASOR’s Collections Fellowship and the assistance of archivist Fr. Narcyz Klimas, I returned to the Franciscan Archivio Storico della Custodia di Terra Santa to hunt down several unedited purchase deeds related to the history of the Custody. Seemingly dull and overly formulaic, these deeds recount the friars’ acquisition of properties throughout the Holy Land and thus offer some of the most concrete evidence for the development and expansion of their presence in the region in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Additionally, these records provide fascinating details on the Franciscans’ relationships with others in the area, illustrating how the friars negotiated with local Muslim authorities, Italian laywomen, merchants in Ramla, and Armenian archbishops (to name just a few). As I continue the work of transcribing and translating these documents, I offer my sincerest thanks to ASOR and its donors for this opportunity to advance my research.