On Sunday, the 22nd December, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Minister General, Br. Massimo Fusarelli and the Definitor General, Br. Jimmy Zammit, participated in the official celebration of the Eighth Centenary of the Stigmata of St. Francis in Lithuania. The Province of St. Casimir, in fact, wanted to commemorate this event with a Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the Minister Provincial, Br. Evaldas Darulis, in which the Minister General gave the homily. He recalled St Elizabeth's attitude of expectation and that of welcome proper to the Virgin Mary, faithfully present from the birth of Jesus to the foot of the Cross. St. Francis in the mystery of his Stigmata participates in this journey of the Lord and does so with all the stigmatized of history.
After the Eucharist, which was attended by a large assembly of the faithful, in front of the friary built in the early 90s in direct connection with the sanctuary of La Verna, the Minister General blessed a new wooden image representing St. Francis stigmatized as he holds the Gospel in his hands and is surrounded by the creatures he loved and sang about so much.
Afterwards, the Minister General with the postulant of the Province, carried a new cross to the Hill of Crosses, where he planted it. During communism, this hill was a sign of the faith and resistance of the Lithuanian people to the Soviet dictatorship and continues to be a destination for pilgrimages, which the friars receive and accompany.
Finally, the Minister General and the Definitor met with the various friars gathered together, the new Bishop of the Diocese and the faithful.
