Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem / Southwestern USA

                                   Pastoral Letter

                      of His Beatitude + Michel Sabbah

                           Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

                                  March 1, 2008

 “the time of my departure has come… I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. (2 Tim 4:6.7)

The Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher
of Jerusalem

5. I thank the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, the Grand Master, the Governor General and all the Lieutenants whom I have known during these past twenty years, for their love and support of the Patriarchate, of its clergy and of all its works and its faithful. Pope Pius IX wanted to renew the Order when the Jerusalem Patriarchate was re-established, so that it might give spiritual and material support to the new diocese. In 1848, he entrusted its re-organization to the first Patriarch, Joseph Valerga. Since then, from generation to generation until this day, the Order has never ceased to fulfill its mission for the Patriarchate. I thank all the members and those responsible for the Order, and I implore God’s grace and blessing upon them.