A Portiuncula altar stone relic is at the heart of Southern Arabia’s jubilee year, deepening Franciscan identity and interreligious dialogue.
Newsroom (25/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) When a small stone from an ancient Italian chapel arrived in the Arabian Peninsula, it carried with it eight centuries of memory and a vision for the future of the Church in the Gulf. The Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia’s jubilee year dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV at the beginning of the year and running until Jan. 10, 2027, is being lived under the quiet but eloquent presence of a relic from the altar of the Church of the Portiuncula, the cradle of Franciscan spirituality.
For Bishop Paolo Martinelli, a Capuchin Franciscan and apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, the arrival of the relic is far more than a ceremonial moment. It is, he suggests, both a sign of continuity with the Church of Assisi and a roadmap for how a deeply Franciscan tradition can take root in the unique context of the Gulf, where Catholics are largely migrant workers and where Christians live as small communities in countries with Muslim majorities.
A stone that carries Assisi to the Gulf
The stone at the heart of this jubilee story comes from one of the most charged places in the Franciscan imagination: the Portiuncula, the little church near Assisi where St. Francis first recognized his vocation, gathered his early companions, and, according to tradition, died 800 years ago. During restoration work following the 1997 earthquake that struck Assisi, the Friars Minor carefully preserved stones from the altar as sacred relics, fragments of a place that had become a spiritual home for Franciscans across the world.
One of these stones has now been entrusted to Southern Arabia. The gift, offered by the Friars Minor of the Seraphic Province of Umbria and Sardinia, reaches the vicariate at a decisive moment: the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ death and the special jubilee year that Pope Leo XIV has dedicated to him. The timing, Martinelli notes, is no coincidence; the relic is a tangible reminder that the life of the vicariate is woven into the same Franciscan fabric that stretches back to Assisi.
Martinelli describes the reception of the relic as an expression of fraternity among the various Franciscan families and a sign of communion between the Church of Assisi and his apostolic vicariate. Many of the priests who serve in the Gulf region are Capuchins, and theologically and spiritually, the vicariate’s pastoral identity is marked by the Franciscan charism. “The pastoral history of the vicariate is closely linked to the Franciscan tradition, particularly through the service of Capuchin missionaries who came from France and Tuscany, and later from different parts of the world,” he explains. On a personal note, he points out that he has long-standing ties with the Friars Minor in Assisi through academic and pastoral work.
In that sense, the stone is not a museum piece but a bridge: between Italy and the Arabian Peninsula, between the early friars and today’s migrant faithful, between a medieval saint and contemporary questions of peace, fraternity, and care for creation.
A jubilee that began before the relic
The apostolic vicariate did not wait for the relic to begin thinking about St. Francis. Martinelli notes that preparations for the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death were already underway before the stone from the Portiuncula was received. The Holy See’s decision to proclaim a jubilee year dedicated to St. Francis, he says, widened the horizon of those plans.
What might have remained a primarily Franciscan commemoration was suddenly opened to the whole Church. The jubilee year, in his view, invites Catholics everywhere to rediscover the saint not as a romanticized figure but as a concrete witness to evangelical freedom, peace, fraternity, and love for creation. In a region where Catholics are often transient, moving in and out for work, that call takes on particular urgency: the spirituality of St. Francis offers a way to root Christian life in simplicity, prayer, and dialogue, even when the social and political landscape is constantly shifting.
The jubilee year will run through the Christmas season, concluding on Jan. 10, 2027. That timing, Martinelli emphasizes, gives communities time to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation through a Franciscan lens. For St. Francis, the humility of God made flesh in Bethlehem was not an abstract doctrine but a lived reality that shaped his love for the poor, his reverence for creation, and his insistence that peace is not optional for a disciple of Christ.
Pilgrimage centers in a migrant Church
To translate these themes into the everyday life of parishes, the vicariate has launched a series of pastoral initiatives, catechetical programs, and publications aimed at helping the faithful know St. Francis better and pray according to his spirituality. In a territory that spans the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen, the logistics are demanding, but the aim is clear: to make the jubilee year not simply a calendar event but a sustained spiritual journey.
Three churches have been designated as principal hubs for jubilee celebrations and pilgrimages. St. Francis Church in Jebel Ali, a sprawling parish that serves a large expatriate community, will become one of the main focal points. So too will St. Francis Church at the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, the multi-faith complex that embodies the UAE’s effort to present Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in a shared space of mutual respect. Completing the trio is St. Anthony Church in Ras Al Khaimah, another significant center for Catholics in the Emirates.
These sites, however, are only the visible pillars of a broader network. Parishes in Oman will be encouraged to organize their own initiatives, integrating Franciscan themes into liturgy, catechesis, and community life. The aim is not to create a separate devotional “layer” added on top of existing parish structures, but to infuse ordinary pastoral activity with Franciscan spirituality: attention to the poor and marginalized, contemplative prayer, ecological awareness, and reconciliation.
Key Franciscan feasts will serve as anchor points throughout the jubilee year. The Pardon of Assisi on Aug. 2 recalls the indulgence associated with the Portiuncula, a liturgical high point that links the Gulf directly to the birthplace of the Franciscan movement. On Sept. 17, communities will mark the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, remembering the saint’s radical conformity to Christ crucified. The anniversary of his death on Oct. 3, traditionally celebrated as the “Transitus,” and his feast day on Oct. 4, will frame the autumn with a focus on his passage from earthly life to eternal communion and the enduring relevance of his witness.
A relic on the move – and a Church on pilgrimage
If the stone from the Portiuncula is rooted in one place in Assisi, in Southern Arabia it will be anything but static. Martinelli explains that the relic will accompany him during his pastoral visits to all parishes in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman. “Each pastoral visit will be placed under the protection of St. Francis and illuminated by the guidance of his spirituality,” he says. “The relic’s journey is like a spiritual pilgrimage among the parishes of the apostolic vicariate.”
This itinerary turns the relic itself into a kind of itinerant preacher. As it moves from community to community, it offers the faithful a concrete focal point for prayer and reflection, a reminder that the Church in the Gulf stands in continuity with a tradition that began in a small chapel where a young Francis heard the Gospel and allowed it to change his life.
The relic is not expected to travel to the countries of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, which has its own pastoral structures and initiatives. Martinelli notes that each vicariate organizes its programs independently, even if cooperation is always possible. That distinction reflects the pastoral reality of the region: while there are shared challenges and opportunities across the Arabian Peninsula, each jurisdiction must respond to its particular context.
Within Southern Arabia, however, the relic’s presence is meant to be as inclusive as possible, reaching parishes embedded in very different social and economic landscapes, from the bustling cities of the UAE to communities in Oman that are more dispersed. The journey underscores a core Franciscan intuition: that the Gospel is always concrete, always local, always carried in the lives of ordinary believers.
Francis, the sultan, and the Gulf today
The stone from the Portiuncula does more than recall Francis’ personal journey; it also evokes his bold crossing of religious and cultural borders. St. Francis has long been regarded as a man of peace and reconciliation, and his encounter with Sultan al-Kamil in Egypt during the Fifth Crusade has become one of the most emblematic episodes in his life.
Martinelli is careful to note that the sources documenting that meeting come exclusively from the Christian tradition. Yet he maintains that the encounter “seems to have left a good memory that allowed the continued presence of Franciscan friars in Egypt, the Holy Land, and other places with Muslim majorities, and it has remained a powerful symbol of dialogue and mutual respect.” For a vicariate whose territory includes Muslim-majority countries and whose faithful live as guests in those societies, this memory is anything but distant.
The bishop draws a direct line from that medieval encounter to more recent events. He recalls Pope Francis’ 2019 visit to the United Arab Emirates, which was linked to the 800th anniversary of the meeting between Francis and the sultan. In that light, the presence of a relic of St. Francis in Gulf countries with Muslim majorities can be understood, he says, as “a reminder of this historical meeting and a sign that encourages interreligious dialogue.”
In practice, that means the stone from the altar where “everything began” in Assisi is now a quiet participant in the Church’s efforts to build bridges in a region where religious identity is often sensitive and politically charged. It stands as a physical reminder that, long before modern concepts of dialogue took shape, a friar from Umbria ventured into Muslim territory not with weapons, but with the desire to speak face to face, trusting that the Gospel of peace could cross even the most fortified lines.
Where everything began — and begins again
The Portiuncula is often described as the principal spiritual reference point for Franciscans worldwide, precisely because so many decisive moments in St. Francis’ life converge there. It was there, listening to a Gospel reading about Christ sending out the apostles, that Francis discerned his own call to radical discipleship. It was there that he and the first friars held their early gatherings, the so-called “Chapter of Mats,” when large numbers of brothers assembled in makeshift conditions to pray, share experiences, and renew their mission.
According to tradition, it was also at the Portiuncula that Francis died 800 years ago, commending his life to the God he had sought in poverty and simplicity. To receive a stone from the altar of that small church is, for Southern Arabia, to welcome into its midst a distilled sign of that entire story.
In the context of the vicariate, where Catholics are diverse in language, culture, and economic situation, the Portiuncula stone becomes a unifying symbol. It tells them that the faith they live in labor camps, apartments, and crowded parish compounds is tied to the same Gospel that set Francis on the road. It whispers that holiness is possible far from Assisi, that peace and fraternity can be lived in the Gulf just as they were lived – in a different way – in medieval Italy.
As the jubilee year unfolds, the stone will continue its discreet circuit through parishes, resting on altars, being venerated by workers, families, and children for whom Assisi might otherwise have remained a distant name. In the process, the story of the Portiuncula is being rewritten in a new geography: a story of a small church that once sent a poor friar across borders, and now, through a fragment of its own altar, reaches the deserts and skyscrapers of Southern Arabia, inviting a new generation to hear the Gospel and begin again.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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