Franciscan friar Serge Loktionov shows a firman, a royal mandate issued by the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Othman Khan III in 1757 (CHECK WITH THOMAS IF ITS 1755 or 1757), which authorised the Franciscans to pray at the Jesus' Tomb, and the Cavalry and on the Anointing Stone, at the Saint Saviour Convent, the headquarters of the Franciscans in the Old City of Jerusalem, on January 25, 2018. Dispatched to the city 800 years ago by the Catholic order's founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, the Franciscans have for centuries ensured a permanent Christian presence in the Holy Land. Pilgrims know them primarily as the Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre, protecting the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried. / AFP PHOTO / Thomas COEX