An exhibition of photographs called “Pope Francis’s Visit to Israel in 2014” opened on Cathedral Square, the center of the city of Vilnius, on August 28. The photographs presented in the exhibit were selected to best show the historical nature of the visit and the most important meetings during the Pope’s trip. Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon and Vilnius archbishop metropolitan Gintaras Linas Grušas opened the open-air public exhibition.

In May, 2014, Pope Francis made his first visit to the Holy Land. It was the fourth pilgrimage by a Pope to Israel, and came on the 50th anniversary of the visit Pope Paul VI made to Israel.

Shimon Peres, president of Israel then, met Pope Francis at Ben-Gurion Airport. The Pope then travelled to Jerusalem where he met the patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They prayed together inside the church. The Pope participated at a synod of bishops later that day.

On the second day of his visit, the Pope visited the Temple Mount, prayed at the Wailing Wall and met with Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Imam Dr. Omar Achmed Aboud. The Pope and prime minister and president of Israel laid a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism.

The Pope also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Musuem where he participated in a commemoration with Holocaust survivors. He visited senior rabbis, met with president Shimon Peres at the presidential residence and then met with prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. At the conclusion of his trip the Pope visited the Church of the Agony next to Gethsemane, or the Mount of Olives, and performed mass at teh Cenacle, or the Room of the Last Supper.

The exhibit will remain on public display on Vilnius’s central square until October 1.

The Embassy of the State of Israel in Vilnius and the Ecclesiastical Heritage Museum organized the exhibition.