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Fribourg (Switzerland) - Nulla die sine linea, no day without drawing a line This is the title of the winning project for the new monument in Fribourg Cathedral with the relics of Nicholas of Myra, Nicholas of Flüe and the Jesuit Petrus Canisius. The relics of the first two are in the cathedral, while the mortal remains of Canisius will be transferred from the church of the College of St. Michael at the end of April 2021. An important date for the Jesuits: On the commemoration day and in the 500th year of Canisius' birth, the new Central European Jesuit Province will be founded, to which Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lithuania belong.

Fribourg has a saint who had a decisive influence on the city: Petrus Canisius (1521-1597), Jesuit from the pioneering period of the Society of Jesus. He came to Fribourg in 1580, at the time of the Counter-Reformation. Born in Nijmegen in today's Netherlands, he had worked as preacher of the faith in half of Europe, lived in Rome, Ingolstadt, Vienna and Prague and founded another Jesuit College in Friburg - at the end of his life there were 18 - the St Michael College, which exists until today.

He is buried there, and now the Cathedral Chapter of the Freiburg Cathedral of St. Nicholas wants to create a new resting place for the Canisius relics in the Holy Sepulchre Chapel of the Cathedral. This will bring together the relics of Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of the cathedral and the city, of Nicholas of Flüe, patron saint of the country, and of Petrus Canisius. Canisius is the patron saint of the future Central European Jesuit province, to which Switzerland also belongs. It will be founded on 27 April 2021, the day of commemoration and the 500th anniversary of Canisius' birth.

Today, the relics of Nicholas of Myra and Nicholas of Flüe are kept in the cathedral's treasury. They are only occasionally accessible to the faithful, as are the mortal remains of Petrus Canisius in the church of the College of St Michael. Hence the desire to bring them together in one place for veneration.

The Cathedral Chapter has launched a competition for the creation of a new religious monument to the three saints. Fifteen projects from Switzerland and abroad were submitted. The jury selected three for a second phase. The winners are Marc-Laurent Naef and Frédéric Aeby from Fribourg.

Nulla die sine linea - no day without drawing a line is the title of the winning project.  "Besides the blessing hand of Nicholas of Myra and the praying hand of Nicholas of Flüe, we will have the writing hand of Petrus Canisius," explains Frédéric Aeby, painter and sculptor. Together with the architect Marc-Laurent Naef, he wants to create three niches in the wall of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. "In this ceremonial room, dominated by the impressive tomb from 1430 and illuminated by the blue-violet stained glass windows of Alfred Manessier, our intervention must be discreet," says Marc-Laurent Naef.

The relics of St. Peter Canisius SJ will be transferred on Monday, 26 April 2021, the day before the new Central European Jesuit Province is founded.

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