“The chapel’s right over there, through the door by the snooker table,” points the barman of a Rabat band club, as he pours a tot of whisky for a patron, to the beat of radio music.

There in the miniscule chapel, part of the St Paul’s Band Club, eight people are reciting the rosary. Every day, from Monday to Friday for the past 129 years, people have been gathering at 5.15pm sharp to say the rosary.

By last August sometimes there’d be just one person a day saying the rosary by himself

It used to be a men-only affair, but over the last year, with the number of participants dwindling drastically to one or two devotees per day, women were encouraged to join – and save the tradition.

“It is not that women were specifically not allowed before, it’s more because somehow band clubs are considered to be more of a men’s area and women tend to shy away from them,” explained Anthony Debono. Mr Debono, 62, has been saying the rosary at the tiny chapel of Madonna of Good Council named after the titular painting by Edoardo Coccoli, since the day he was born.

“Well almost, I live right opposite, so I remember clearly that as a five-year old, I used to cross the road when the bell rang and join the others to say the rosary.”

The tradition was started off by chapel sextons Gio Batta Portelli and Tumas Tonna in 1885, and since the 1960s a Legion of Mary member always leads the prayers. But rosary time in the 1960s used to be very popular, with the chapel being so chock-a-block with men that the back door always had to be opened to make more space.

“There used to be about 50 to 70 people every day – of all ages. There was a lotto booth on the other side of the chapel and because by law it could not close down, a placard used to be put up so as to hide the gambling place from view while we were saying the rosary,” Mr Debono said.

However in these last couple of decades, the numbers started dwindling. “By last August sometimes there’d be just one person a day saying the rosary by himself,” said elderly villager Josephine Barbieri.

When last summer Ms Barbieri heard the archpriest’s plea on the pulpit to encourage people to start attending, she decided to act upon it.

Not only did she start going herself, and got her daughter to join her, but for the rest of the summer, she used to stay at the doorway of the St Paul’s band club and encourage passers-by to join in prayer.

“Come on, it’s only a 10 minute thing! Come on, surely you can’t be that busy!” she’d tell them. The majority of those she approached joined in.

“This summer, at least, we were always about eight to 10 people saying the rosary together – let’s hope it’s like that in winter too,” Ms Barbieri said.

As part of the rosary they also pray for the St Paul’s Club society members; the Count Roger Band players, and their families; and for the souls of their departed.

“It’s only 10 minutes – at the end we thank each other, and we all head back to our lives, but for that brief time there is a peaceful lull in our hectic lives,” said Ms Barbieri.