Commissariat of the Holy Land is the term in the Order of Friars Minor for the territory or district assigned to a commissary, whose duty it was to collect alms for the maintenance of the Catholic Holy Places in Palestine/Israel committed to the care of the Friars Minor.
The term also designates, in a more restricted sense, the Franciscan convent where the aforesaid commissary resides.
These alms may not, under any circumstances, without express permission of the Holy See, be applied to other purposes, however pious and meritorious, under grave ecclesiastical penalties.
There were in the early 20th century forty commissariats throughout the Christian world, the most ancient being that of Naples, founded in 1333, when Robert of Anjou redeemed the Holy Places from the Sultan of Egypt.
In English-speaking countries there were seven — three in the United States, one in Canada, one in Great Britain, one in Ireland, and one in Australia.