A hundred and seventy-five years ago, the parish church of St George in Victoria was preparing to welcome the artistic statue of the martyr-saint of Lydda which gradually was to establish itself as the first titular statue revered on the island.

The year was 1839; the world was changing fast, the repercussions of the 1830 French revolutions were still strongly felt.

As governments were being overthrown all over continental Europe, the island of Gozo was experiencing a very different ‘revolution a revolution in artistic ideas.

When the statue of St George arrived in Gozo’s medieval town, titular statues in Malta were already quite numerous.

In 1657, Melchiorre Gafà had carved the artistic statue of St Paul for his church in Valletta; Qormi’s St George, also sculpted in wood by Qormi-born Pietro Felici, was made in 1738.

It was almost a century after the latter that the Gozitans could celebrate the arrival of their first titular statue. This shows that the artistic revival in Gozo began relatively late.

The statue – it is presumed – was commissioned in 1838 as an ex-voto by an anonymous person after gaining a heavenly favour through the intercession of Gozo’s patron saint. It is believed that the gentleman who commissioned it wanted to remain anonymous; a historical document tells us that he lived somewhere near the bishop’s palace in Victoria.

Considering the fact that the present palace in Republic Street was given to the diocese by the Bondì aristocratic family only in 1880, the document must be referring to the previous one in the Sqaq tal-Giżimin abutting from Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia Street, a stone’s throw away from St George’s basilica.

It is said that the price of the statue was of three hundred scudi. At that time, the parish priest at St George’s was Canon Fortunato Cutajar.

Canon Nicholas Vella Apap (1930-2000) said that the transportation of the statue from Valletta to Victoria was quite a big event.

The statue, by Valletta-born Pietru Pawl Azzopardi (1791-1875), must have been sculpted in his studio in Cospicua and then brought to Gozo by sea.

It is known that the statue was brought over to Mġarr, on Francesco Schembri’s own private boat; he was then known by his nickname ‘tad-Deredin’ – a nickname that still survives in Victoria as ‘tad-Deredej’.

On its way to Victoria, the statue was stopped at Piazza San Giovanni in Xewkija. It is not known for certain why the statue was stopped in this particular square; it has been said that a statue which was an ex-voto could not bypass a parish church on its way to its final destination.

Another interpretation claims that the statue stopped in Xewkija since this was the first church to be established as a parish outside the ancient walls of Gozo’s main town. Whatever the reason, the halt in Xewkija must have impressed the locals, since within a short time parish priest Nikola Vella commissioned the same Azzopardi to sculpt a statue of St John the Baptist for his parish; the statue of St John arrived in 1845.

The statue was passed through Strada Corso, which is today’s Republic Street, and was finally carried shoulder-high into the parish church in the town. Hunters walked in front of the statue firing off their guns at intervals.

Never has a valuable piece of art been scantly documented as the St George of Victoria

There is no doubt that besides the 1678 titular altarpiece by Fra Mattia Preti showing a victorious St George standing next to his white stallion and crushing the dragon under his feet, the wooden statue of the martyr saint is the most precious treasure that the Victoria basilica can boast of.

Various writers throughout the ages have made it the subject of their studies; Dr Eugene Montanaro was presumably the first writer to tackle the life of Azzopardi in some detail. For an artistic appreciation of the statue from a professional viewpoint, the interested reader or researcher must read what Mark Sagona has to say about it:

“The Neo-Classical imprint is clearly manifest in the St George. The saint is very much inspired by the prototypes of Ancient Greece. He adopts a frontal stance with one leg fully carrying the body’s weight, while the other is in slight motion; the commanding half-outstretched open arm lends power to the figure and balances out the other, which is kept close to the body to hold the symbols of martyrdom and glory… the statue’s dynamic command is clearly manifested when one looks at it from a three-quarter angle to the statue’s right, above all when it is carried shoulder-high during processions.”

Further reflections from both an anthropological and artistic perspective were written by Mgr Dr Joseph Farrugia and Charles Cassar respectively, and both articles are worthy of note.

Never has a valuable piece of art been scantly documented as the St George of Victoria. The Libro Esito for the years 1817 to 1844 conserved at St George’s basilica has a note written under the date of September 17, 1839, stating that the parish paid the sum of three scudi and five grani to Mastro Giuseppe

This earliest known photo dates back to 1896. Photo: St George’s parish archives Caruana “for the iron for the niche of the statue of St George”. Moreover, Azzopardi himself must have done some final touches on the statue in 1840-1841.

No other documentation of substance has been found in the parish archives throwing light on the arrival of the statue in the parish where it is revered to this very day. Many are those who hope that in the future some researcher might come across further documentation about its arrival in Gozo.

Along the years the statue was to undergo various changes. In 1903, it was regilded by Gauci of Valletta and repainted by the renowned Maltese artist Giuseppe Calì.

In May 1943, it was repainted by Maltese artist Giuseppe Briffa of Birkirkara.

In 1957, two young women, Ġorġa Galea and Antonietta Vella of Victoria, collected £450 and with this sum ordered the golden sandals for the statue made by goldsmith Pirotta of Naxxar.

Ġorġ Grech, a parishioner of St George’s, donated a golden belt for the statue in 1996.

The statue was restored that same year, when Mgr Saviour Borg was archpriest; the scientific work of restoration and conservation was supervised by the Autieri Cinzia Restauri of Naples, with Fr Ugo Dovere in charge of the team.

Besides being the titular statue of a parish in Victoria, the statue is in many ways a living relic of a people’s faith. It is not only an aristic treasure; it is the coining of the very faith that the people of Gozo have expressed throughout more than a century and a half.

It seems that the marching of the statue in the annual procession on the saint’s feastday did not satisfy the people’s love for their protector saint; they wanted to invoke his protection even in their most dire needs.

The statue, which was commissioned as a thanksgiving for the saint’s protection during the Asiatic cholera of June 1837, was brought out for processions on various occasions and for varied reasons.

In 1877, it was taken processionally together with the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows to the church of the Capuchin Friars on the outskirts of Victoria, in the area know as Il-Belliegħa.

During World War II it was brought out of its niche and put in the church for the veneration of the faithful; Mgr Mikiel Gonzi, then Bishop of Gozo, approved a special prayer invoking the protection of the saint, and the people of the island turned to St George during wartime.

The statue... is the coining of the faith that the people of Gozo have expressed throughout more than a century and a half

In 2003, as the Christian world was celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the saint’s glorious martyrdom, the statue was brought out in a procession which was held on the morning of the nearest Sunday to April 23. Last April, the saint’s statue was again brought out in a procession around the streets of Victoria to commemorate the 175th anniversary since its arrival on the island.

Each year, on the third Sunday of July, the statue is brought out of the basilica in a spectacular and very unique way, welcomed by the waving of palm branches during Giuseppe Giardini Vella’s hymn-cantata A San Giorgio Martire (1930), and then carried shoulder-high around the old streets of the town for the annual titular procession, accompanied by the La Stella Philharmonic Band.

Between April and July, St George’s parish celebrated the 175th anniversary of the statue’s arrival. Special celebrations took place and the relic of the arm of the martyr-saint revered in the Benedictine Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice was brought over for the veneration of the faithful.

The celebrations have come and gone; it is the statue that has come in order to remain. And remain it will so that it may continue to inspire writers, poets, painters and artists of different levels and backgrounds, both local and foreign.

With its unique form and noble stature, the statue of St George by Azzopardi will continue to be cherished by future generations who recognise the protector-saint who came to the aid of the people of Gozo throughout the vicissitudes of time.