Fresh evidence on cult of St Paul uncovered

Fresh evidence relating to the devotion to St Paul and the Church in early 12th century Malta is to be published by one of the speakers at an international symposium next month.

The evidence was discovered in a 4,000-line poem archived in Spain, the curator of Wignacourt Museum, Mgr Gwann Azzopardi said yesterday.

The symposium, which will be accompanied by an exhibition, will be held at the Wignacourt Museum, in Rabat, on June 26 and 27. It will include speakers from Malta, Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

The acts of the symposium and the exhibition catalogue will be available by June 26.

The exhibition will include items related to the time when Pope Paul V handed over St Paul's Grotto to the Order of the Knights of St John in the early 17th century.

Mgr Azzopardi was speaking after he and the archpriest of St Paul's Collegiate, in Rabat, Fr Louis Suban were presented with a cheque for Lm1,500 by Salvino Busuttil, chairman of the six-year-old Wignacourt Fund Sicav, to mark the museum's 25th anniversary.

Prof. Busuttil hoped the donation would mark the beginning of further assistance, in a bid to make the place more friendly to visitors.

Housed in a baroque palace known as Wignacourt College, the museum includes hundreds of exhibits ranging from unique items, such as a portable altar that was used on the galleys of the Order of St John, to a wide assortment of paintings, sculptures, coins, ceramics, sacred vestments, prints, maps and furniture.

Wignacourt College was officially inaugurated as a museum in 1981, after a contract between the Church and the government concluded 20 years earlier returned the college with its churches to the Ecclesiastical authorities.

The building includes gardens, catacombs, and a war shelter with 50 rooms. One of the halls served as a bakery which, during World War II, used to provide 2,000 loaves daily for the residents of Rabat. It is said that the baker's wife gave birth to twins in one corner of the bakery.

Application forms for the symposium are available at the museum (tel. 2145 1060).

Email: revjazzo1@onvol.net