St Paul in Malta - The Shipwreck

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ST PAUL IN MALTA

Ticket Information

Show times:

Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm (every hour)

Saturday 10am - 2pm (every hour)

Sunday & Public Holidays (by appointment)


The show is open till 2pm on:
Maundy Thursday, 14 August, 24 December & 31 December

The show is closed on 1st & 2nd January - Good Friday
Easter Sunday & the day after - 25 & 26 December


Prices:
Adults €7.50 / Children (3-12years) €5.00
As our intention is that of retracing the footsteps of  St. Paul, and sites linked with the Pauline cult, it is fore mostly  fitting to consider the places of worship that have been dedicated to  St. Paul during this, our form of pilgrimage.

We continue by discovering the landmarks with historical, traditional  and legendary links to St. Paul’s stay in Malta.  Finally, we dwell  also on some other sites which, though not directly linked to the  Apostle’s stay in Malta, are in some way related with St. Paul or his  cult.  It must however be made clear that the latter is by no means an  exhaustive list of such sites, as numerous statues, niches, etc, abound  around the Maltese Islands.

MALTA

ST PAUL’S BAY
Area of Tal-Għażżenin. Traditionally the rocks and  reefs in this area are those upon which St Paul’s ship was stuck aground  during the tempest of that fateful night. ‘Tal-Għażżenin’ literally  meaning the slothful. It is an unfortunate corruption derived from the  Greek ‘Thalassanejn’ implying ‘two seas’.
St Paul’s Islands is a single rock formation  jutting out picturesquely on the northern side of St Paul’s Bay.  Officially known by the name of The Islands of Selmunett.
Għajn Rasul, meaning Apostle’s Spring is where  according to legend, the Apostle made the water come forth in order to  provide for his thirsty fellow survivors from aboard the shipwreck.
The Miracle of the Viper Chapel (known as San Pawl  tal-Ħuġġieġa). This is believed to be the site where a bonfire was lit  to keep the stranded survivors warm after the wreck, and where St Paul  was bitten, and remained unaffected, by a venomous snake.
MELLIEHA
Our Lady of Mellieha Sanctuary. This is said to be  the Islands’ oldest sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady, drawing locals and  foreigners for Marian veneration. It is believed that in the sanctuary’s  grotto, lays a painting of the Virgin Mary, work of St Luke the  Evangelist who accompanied St Paul during his trip to Malta.

MDINA
The Mdina Gate. This richly carved gate with its  rusticated pillars dates back to 1724. On the inside of the gateway are  bas-relief figures of St Paul (in the centre), St Publius (left) and St  Agatha (right), protectors of Mdina.
St Paul’s Metropolitan Cathedral. It is  traditionally said that it was built on the site of the palace of  Publius the ‘chief man’ of the island in Roman Malta in 60 A.D. The titular painting over the Altar represents the ‘Conversion of St Paul’  by the Calabrian Knight of the Order of St John, Mattia Preti  (1613-1699), above which is a fresco of the ‘Shipwreck of St Paul’ by  the same artist.

RABAT
St Paul’s Collegiate Parish Church. Was built to  the left of St Paul’s Grotto right outside the walls of the ancient  Roman capital city of Melite. Similar to the Roman church bearing the  same name, it was thus known as ‘San Paolo fuori le Mura’; meaning ‘St  Paul outside the Walls’.
St Paul’s Grotto & Wignacourt College Museum.  This is the crypt and cave where the Apostle of nations, St Paul, is  said to have spent part of his time in confinement in 60 A.D. following  his shipwreck while on his way to Rome to stand trial. The Museum was  opened in 1980 to preserve all artistic and historical objects in  Wignacourt College, St Paul’s Church and Grotto.
St Paul’s Catacombs. Due to the catacombs’  proximity to St Paul’s Grotto they bear the Apostle’s name. The  properties have been separated with the St Paul’s Catacombs forming part  of the State property, whilst the Grotto belongs to the Church  authorities.

SAFI
The Conversion of St Paul Parish Church. Dominating  the Safi village square is the Parish church dedicated to the  Conversion of St Paul. Construction of the present church started in  1726 on the site where apparently a small church dedicated to St Paul  had already existed by the early fifteenth century.

COSPICUA
St Paul’s Church. Cospicua, or Bormla, is one of  the historic cities in the south-east of Malta. The church occupies an  elevated and strategic site overlooking an intersection of three busy  roads as well as the inner part of Galley Creek where the galley  squadron of the Order was based.

FLORIANA
St Publius’ Parish Church. This large and grand  church dominates St Publius Square, the open space over the subterranean  granaries constructed by the Knights for storage. It is said that  Publius, the Roman Governor, was nominated by St Paul as Malta’s first  bishop.

VALLETTA
St John’s Co-Cathedral. Was built to be the  Conventual Church of the Sovereign Military Order of Hospitaller Knights  of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, and for this reason is  dedicated to the patron saint of the same Order, namely St John the  Baptist. Within the Cathedral, however, is the Chapel of the Langue of  France, which is dedicated to St Paul’s Conversion.
St Paul’s Shipwreck Collegiate Parish Church. One  of the oldest churches in Valletta, and was also described by Gian  Francesco Abela in 1647 as ‘a very beautiful temple’. Evidencing the  great devotion to the saint are the great works of art found in this  church such as the magnificent titular altarpiece. The church also  houses the treasured relic of a fragment of St Paul’s right wrist bone  donated to the church in 1823 by Vincenzo Aloisio Bonavia.

BIRKIRKARA
St Paul of the Valley Church. St Paul’s days of  preaching on the island are also commemorated by a small church built in  1538 known as San Pawl tal-Wied said to mark a place where the Apostle  stopped to preach to the people.
   
NAXXAR
St Paul’s Shipwreck Chapel & St Paul’s Statue.  The church and statue are situated in the limits of Naxxar in the  locality of San Pawl tat-Tarġa. An interesting legend narrates that this  was one of the spots where St Paul preached to the Maltese, and that  his sermons from here were instantly heard from the island of Gozo.    

BURMARRAD
San Pawl Milqi Chapel. It is a tiny village in the  north of Malta, very close to where St Paul is traditionally believed to  have been shipwrecked. Perched atop the Ġebel Għawżara hill overlooking  the parish church and village is a small chapel known as San Pawl  Milqi. Milqi is an ancient Maltese which means ‘welcomed’. It is here  that St Paul converted Publius to Christianity after his father was  healed from fever and dysentery.

GOZO

MUNXAR
St Paul’s Shipwreck Parish Church. Munxar is a  small rural village in Gozo, 1.6kms away from Gozo’s capital city,  Victoria. The main altarpiece is by Robert Caruana Dingli (1882-1940)  and represents ‘St Paul’s Shipwreck’.

MARSALFORN
St Paul’s Shipwreck Church. Marsalforn is a seaside  village, renowned for its saltpans, in the north-west of Gozo. A legend  holds that three months after his shipwreck in Malta, St Paul left the  island from the tiny port just beneath this church, claimed to be the  closest port of the Maltese Islands to Pozzallo, in Sicily.

NADUR
St Peter and St Paul Basilica and Collegiate Parish Church.  Nadur, Gozo’s most populated village, is perched atop a plateau from  where most of Gozo can be admired. A church was built by the donations  and labour of the poor parishioners upon public land on the Ta’ Nadur  hill, donated for such purpose by Fra Gregorio Carafa (1680-1690), a  Grand Master of the Order of St John. The present and larger church was  built on the design of the Maltese architect Giuseppe Bonnici  (1705-1779) after the foundation stone was laid in December 1760.
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