The recent unholy outburst in this paper condemning Grand Master Jean de Valette’s “debauchery” as well as the incorrect historical facts are very disturbing. I feel it is my duty to put the events mentioned in the right perspective.

The long history of the Knights, both as hospitallers and a military order, reveals the extent of their humanitarian mission. To say they “were unwanted everywhere in Acre, Rhodes and Malta” is a gross misrepresentation of facts.

The Knights were expelled from Jerusalem, Acre and Rhodes by superior Ottoman forces. They were so popular in Rhodes that over 600 Rhodiots accompanied the Knights to Vittoriosa in 1530.

It is true that the Knights invested in piracy, an activity that was prevalent in Vittoriosa at the time. Paradoxically, they had been obliged to pay a small percentage of their bounty to the nuns of St Ursola in Valletta, which they readily accepted.

In the mid-16th century, Vittoriosa teemed with concubines and courtesans and illegitimacy was rampant across society.

At the time, it was acknowledged and documented that some priests had a concubine, that the sacrament of matrimony was just a formality, as Inquisition records reveal, that the Church was in disarray and the Papacy was no paragon of rectitude.

The history of the prosperous Rhodiots who accompanied the Knights in 1530 reads like a penny-dreadful with the inhumanity shown to slaves who were sold and exchanged for casks of wines and sexual favours in league with some Maltese galley-owners, intrepid ruthless captains or sailors.

What was left unsaid with regard to our collective memory is the complete amnesia of those in the corridors of power who unwittingly fail to realise that Valletta is not the city of the siege of 1565. This attitude has touched a raw nerve of the humble Vittoriosa populace.

Surely the distortion of our collective memory is a serious indelible blot on those who want to change the course of history.