The antiquity of Marian devotion in the Maltese islands

“Of all the gifts brought to these shores in the course of your people’s history,” Pope Benedict XVI told the Maltese when he visited the country in 2010, “the gift brought by Paul  was the greatest of all [the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ], and it is much to your credit that it was immediately accepted and treasured.” Benedict was referring to the famous passage in the book of Acts [27, 28] commonly referred to as Paul’s Shipwreck, and the saint's meeting with Publius, the chief of the island who eventually became its first bishop.

Paul was shipwrecked off the northwestern coast of Malta on his way to trial in Rome in the year 60, and spent the unnavigable winter months there. It was during those three months when he established the very roots of Maltese Christianity -- Christianity in the archipelago thus being as ancient as in Ephesus, Jerusalem, Corinth, and Rome itself. 

The Maltese archipelago can claim to have an uninterrupted 2,000-year-old Christian tradition. Solid documentary evidence of the Pauline cult in these islands are the 6th-century references to Gaudomelite (Melite of Gozo) in the apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul, and the 12th-century narrative in the anonymous Greek poem (published as Tristia ex Melitogaudo).Christianity in the islands did not spread like fire; that much is true. We find evidence of pagan religions still doing well in the 2nd century. Statues to Apollo and temples dedicated to the goddess Juno were still being erected. As elsewhere, the new religion began to come out in the open after Constantine’s edict of Milan in 313. Christian catacombs are the earliest and most prominent archaeological evidence (dating back to at least the 3rd-4th centuries, with their characteristic agape tables. Some lesser known (because in private hands) cave churches, like St. George at Fawwara, have distinctive Roman features. Later manifestations in the first millennium are, among others, the Byzantine basilica and baptistry at Tas-Silġ, a Christian presence at the San Pawl Milqi (the welcoming of St. Paul in Maltese) complex, the clear existence of a Bishop of Malta in 553, and the four letters addressed to Malta’s bishops by Pope Saint Gregory the Great (592-603 A.D.)

According to longstanding Maltese tradition, devotion to Mary began very early in the islands, through the preaching of St. Paul and St. Luke, who accompanied him. Luke’s Gospel, with its distinctive attention to Mary, has long given weight to that tradition.

Indeed, the many different chapels found all throughout the Maltese landscape are evidence that Malta was, from the get-go, a center of unambiguous Marian devotion. In fact, after Constantine declared that Christianity was an approved religion and protected within Roman law (religio licita -- edict of Milan), plenty of Neolithic temples were converted into churches dedicated to Christ and his saints. Those that were dedicated to goddesses were then happily consecrated to the Blessed Virgin by a population that, most likely -- again, according to spoken tradition -- was already devoted to her. Indeed, a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows (Madonna tas-Silġ) built on a hill overlooking the Byzantine Port of Marsaxlokk, is evidence that Malta was a center of Marian devotion. For centuries, the mariners who used this seaport have left burnt offerings to various goddesses associated with sea travel, ranging from the Phoenician Astarte to the Carthaginian Melqart, down to the Roman Juno. Here we do well to remember the Church policy, after the Emperor Constantine declared that Christianity was religio licita, of converting pagan temples into churches dedicated to Christ and his saints. Normally, temples dedicated to goddesses were then consecrated to the Blessed Virgin.

On Tas-Silġ Hill (A hill and church dedicated to Our Lady of Snow; Silġ in Maltese mean snow) there stood a Neolithic pagan temple dedicated to the fertility goddess (3,000 BC). The Phoenician mariner-merchants had built a temple to honor Astarte, Queen of the Stars and hence of sea travel (c. 700 BC). Around 300 BC, the Romans turned the Punic temple into a shrine of their goddess Juno, Queen of Heaven. In the 5th century AD, that is during the early Christian era, the Orthodox Byzantines erected a Basilica at the Tas-Silġ site.

It is a historical fact proved by impeachable documentary and architectural evidence that special and intensive devotion to the Blessed Virgin was one of the chief characteristics of the Christian Orthodox Church and Society. During the First Crusade, Bishop Adhemar, the Papal Legate, wrote that it is almost impossible to visit a Byzantine church or monastery and not find an icon dedicated to the Theotokos. So, it is impossible too, that the Orthodox Byzantines did not bring with them the Marian cult that had entered the souls of the inhabitants and has never left them ever since. It follows that it is very difficult not to conclude that it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Other examples, among many, which stand as witnesses to the antiquity of Marian devotion in the Archipelago are the Gozo Cathedral of the Assumption, and the semi-troglodytic churches of St. Helen church in Bormla, and of the Nativity of Mary in Fort St. Angelo in Birgu.

The patroness of the Maltese Islands, like France, is the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Assumption into Heaven. In fact, the Archipelago is dotted with parishes, churches, and chapels dedicated to the Assumption – the Gozo Cathedral being the archipelago’s highest-ranking church with this title. Devotional life in the Maltese Islands has always given special prominence to the Assumption. Santa Marija Assunta (in Maltese) has always been the most popular feast and fount of widespread devotion. Its early origins however are difficult to trace. There are a number of documented sources indicating that the first church on the cathedral’s site predates it by centuries. It was possibly dedicated to the Dormition of Mary, from which the title of the Assumption developed. In both Eastern and Western Christendom, one of the most ancient Marian devotions is that of the Virgin’s Dormition -- her Assumption into Heaven -- as a premise of her imminent glorification. In fact, several early apocryphal sources, such as Transitus Mariae or Passing of Mary, the earliest extant historical writing on the Assumption, describe her death and burial in Jerusalem. The oldest of these, believed to have been composed in the 2nd century by Leucius Karinus, a disciple of John, is thought to be based on an original document from the apostolic era, and possibly by the Evangelist himself.

The first spiritual site where the cathedral stands today was a megalithic temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Juno consecrated by Christians. It is possible that Iċ-Ċittadella – the area surrounding the cathedral – became a center of activity in an early prehistoric period. So it would not be surprising at all if the early Gozo Christians dedicated this temple to the Dormition of Mary. This is a pious tradition, but in fact is partly proved by archaeological remains dating from the early imperial period unearthed in abundance during the building of the present church between 1697 and 1711. The remains of this early temple are still fused in the structure of today’s cathedral church and many artefacts from the temple are found in the museum of the cathedral.

In Bormla (or Burmula, deriving from Bir Mula, which means Well of the Lord) there is a partially troglodytic church, which goes back to at least the 7th century. Bormla is an ancient city in the south east of Malta known also as Città Cospicua (meaning conspicuous city). In this church, a Latin inscription remains and a Greek inscription that once was inscribed around the pediment of the church has been destroyed. The church had survived the Ottoman siege of 1565, but succumbed to the ravages of time, with World War II giving it its coup de grâce. However, the troglodytic part of the church survived, namely the chancel and apse, and preserves a partly damaged Latin inscription asserting the Madonna’s divine motherhood. It was originally dedicated to St. Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine, but the Nativity title of the Virgin suggests a Marian re-dedication of the church. Nevertheless, the pre-Muslim church preserved its Byzantine Helenian ties when it acquired a Latin Marian dedication. Fortunately, the Greek inscription was recorded in Gian Antonio Ċiantar’s Malta Illustrata (1772). Recently, Prof. Stanley Fiorini studied and reinterpreted the inscription. His reconstruction is as follows (Greek to English):

“Oh Thou heavenly exceedingly provident and transcendentally good… {In the year 663}… Oh blessed, patient [God], behold [our] acts of piety rather than chastise us – I have been exiled as you saw fitting – turn a listening ear to my pleadings that we may emerge, by virtue of your resurrection, we may be saved [after] death”.

[_{Fiorini S. A Reconstruction of the Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the Church of St. Helen, Bormla. Melita Historica. Special Edition, 2020}]

Behind the protective ramparts of Fort St. Angelo, a colony of Angevins, and later, Aragonese and Sicilian nobility, as well as mariners and merchants from across Christendom, grew steadily. Fort St. Angelo became known as the Castrum Maris (“The Castle on the Sea”). The colony had no official name and was simply called The Burg (the city), hence il Borgo del Castello in Italian and Il-Birgu in Maltese. The Castle also served as the seat of the Castellan (Keeper of the Castle), who represented the Viceroy of Palermo, acting as Governor of the islands and serving as the stronghold of the Maltese archipelago. If we go further back into the history of the famous Castle, strong tradition holds that on its site, during the Phoenician and Carthaginian periods, there stood a temple dedicated to the goddess of the stars, Astarte (or Ashtaroth). Later, with the arrival of the Romans, the temple changed hands, and Juno, “Queen of Heaven,” became its patroness. This Roman temple is confirmed by Canon G.M. Farrugia, a scholar and researcher of the origins and development of Birgu. It is important to note that ashlar blocks from the Punic period and other artifacts have been found at Fort Saint Angelo, confirming its ancient origins.

Returning to the Castle itself, a 1274 inventory, preserved in the State Archives of Naples (written in Latin; extract from Malta nei documenti Angioni del R. Archivio di Napoli, by Vincenzo Laurenza, Edizioni dell’Archivio Storico di Malta, Roma 1935 – XIII, cited in The Phoenico-Graeco-Roman Temple and the Development of Fort Saint Angelo, Joseph Francis Darmanin, 1948) mentions two churches within the Castle. One was dedicated to St. Mary in the upper part of the Fort (Castro Interiore), while the other was dedicated to Sancti Angeli, hence the name Fort St. Angelo, located at a lower level (Castro Esteriore), today dedicated to the Nativity of Mary. The church in the Castro Esteriore was carved into the bedrock using troglodytic techniques. According to tradition, it was founded in the 11th century. The 1274 inventory also references artifacts already considered antique, suggesting they date back to at least the 11th or 12th century. This church also housed a very ancient icon of the Blessed Virgin. The late Hugh Braun, an authority on medieval architecture, noted a similarity between this rock-carved chapel and those at Mellieħa and St. Paul’s Grotto in Rabat. Furthermore, some historians argue that a chapel hewn in rock, similar to the earliest Christian churches in Syria, such as Petra and Palmyra, is in itself evidence of its antiquity.

It is therefore very likely that the first Christian cave church here was dedicated to Mary, carved to consecrate the pagan temple dedicated to Juno nearby. Importantly, this church represents the oldest place of Christian worship still in use in the harbour area. Through the centuries, the chapel in the Castro Interiore was dedicated to various titles, but probably during the time of the Knights of Saint John the Baptist (the Knights of Malta) it was dedicated to St. Anne, Mary’s mother.

As we can see, Marian devotion in Malta goes back to the origins of Christianity, but it is so fervent that the Maltese are always ready to accept new devotions that develop in other countries. For example, it is one of the curiosities of history that the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Marsaxlokk, thanks to an outpouring of grace and providence, was opened and consecrated only one year after the original Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii was consecrated, on May 7, 1891. The church of Marsaxlokk was consecrated on September 25, 1892! It became a parish on January 11, 1897, and the first baptism took place on November 22, 1882, when the child was named Rosaria, after Our Lady of the Rosary. On May 8, 2017, Archbishop Charles Jude Scicluna elevated the parish to a Marian Sanctuary.