Artist and Franciscan: Art as a Path of Evangelization
The Terra Sancta Museum – Art & History is not the only artistic work of the Custody of the Holy Land. The Magnificat music conservatory and its choir, as well as individual friars, explore the relationship between art and mission. We meet one of them, Brother Balu.
At the beginning of November, at Saint Saviour’s Monastery in Jerusalem, we discovered the exhibition of Brother Balu. Originally from India and a student of theology, he combines paintbrushes and prayer, expressing this union between art and a “journey of faith.” He opens the doors of his studio to us, his “secret chapel,” as he likes to call it, a place open to everyone and where he can express his art.
An Exhibition that Invites Contemplation
Since childhood, Brother Balu has drawn, painted, and sculpted. His current exhibition is entitled Logos and Icons. The word Logos (λόγος) in Greek means “word,” “speech,” “reason,” or “meaning.” In this context, it refers to Christ himself. “The Word became flesh so that we could see Him, touch Him, experience Him,” explains Brother Balu.
His paintings, often stylized self-portraits transformed into “modern icons”, are arranged in the shape of a cross, turning the exhibition space into a true place of prayer. More than a gallery, the whole setting evokes a chapel, inspired by the daily reality of the Holy Land. Next to his paintings, the poems of Brother Luis Cisneros, another Franciscan artist, enter into dialogue with the images: “Words allow us to hear what colors want to say,” he summarizes.
Franciscan Art as a Path of Encounter
From November 3rd to 7th, 2025, Brother Balu and Brother Corrado Sica, chief organist of the Holy Sepulchre and a leading figure at the Magnificat conservatory in Jerusalem, were invited to an international gathering of Franciscan artists at the General Curia of the Franciscan Order in Rome. Four days of dialogue, music, and sharing centered on a single conviction: art is not a simple ornament, but a path of evangelization.
“It wasn’t a series of presentations,” explains Brother Balu, “but a collective reflection on what we, as Franciscan artists, want to express, namely our faith in the Gospel through art.” Musicians, singers, painters, and photographers exchanged views on how they create and how they live their faith through artistic expression.
The Minister General, Brother Massimo Fusarelli, reminded them of the deeper meaning of their vocation: “Do not create your art behind closed doors: open them, let people in, engage with them.”
For Brother Balu, this artistic dimension is rooted in the spirituality of Saint Francis himself. “Francis didn’t say how one should live the Gospel; he simply said to live it. For Franciscans, anything can become a means of proclamation: teaching, singing, painting, creating.” It is this same boldness that drives Franciscans today to create the Terra Sancta Museum, convinced that art is fertile ground for relationships and a possible place of encounter with Christ.
