Ray Bondin
Today Malta celebrates the shipwreck of St Paul. This passage in a lifetime of voyages of this important messenger of the then new Christian faith is only one in a long series of events that saw Paul of Tarsus leaving a long-lasting imprint on the countries he visited.
His voyages throughout the Middle East – that covered many countries including Syria, Turkey and Greece and also his last voyage to Rome through Malta, Sicily and Calabria – are worth studying.
St Paul’s voyage linked the east with the west, the centre of the most important religion at the time with the most important empire of the time. It is an incredible cultural route. A foundation is being set up to give value to this cultural route.
The idea to set up a foundation that would see contributions from all the countries touched by the voyage of St Paul has been around for some time. It has been some years since I discussed this with one of the most important Israeli archaeologists and World Heritage expert Michael Turner.
Ideally, such a ‘cultural route’ would start from where his last voyage started, that is the port of Cesarea in Israel, but would also include Damascus in Syria, Tarsus and Ephesus in Turkey, Thessalonica in Greece, Malta of course, Sicily, Calabria and Rome. But in this troubled region of the world nothing is ever easy.
Linking Israel with some of these countries immediately creates logistical problems. Anything to do with culture should be beyond political realities but unfortunately this is only an ideal. The practical truth is much more complex and difficult.
True, the voyages of St Paul were done to spread the gospel but there is another side of the voyages that we should discuss and that is the cultural link that these voyages created.
St Paul managed to spread the word in all his neighbouring countries but also enlarged very much the presence of Christians in southern Europe and up to the very centre of the largest empire of the time.
There is no doubt that these voyages left a very strong impact on all these countries. The central link is thefigure of St Paul himself, a very good and convincing preacher and a very forceful and courageous man.
You can discuss without end whether these countries (or rather particular cities within those countries except for Malta, where certainly we have to speak about the whole country) remained loyal to what he preached. But there is no doubt that this was one of the most powerful cultural routes within the Mediterranean.
He brought with him not only the faith but the cultures, the languages and the traditions of these countries with him. St Paul could do this because he knew the major languages and even though he was of Turkish origin he knew the whole region well and was also a Roman citizen.
There are many books that discuss and describe the impact that St Paul had on the spread of Christianity.
The focus of the foundation is, however, on his voyages and how these created one of the most incredible cultural routes and links in central and eastern Mediterranean.
In recent years the idea of the foundation has been revived. I have had discussions at many levels about this, both on a national and international level. There is great interest in this initiative and in the past four years I have seen progress on one part but also an increase of difficulties.
A realistic scenario would see the foundation start in a modest way in Sicily and Malta and then slowly spread outwards towards the east and towards Rome. This is what we are building on. The fervent enthusiasm for St Paul in Malta and Sicily certainly helps.
Nationally I have seen a great interest in this project in the figure of the Speaker of the House, Anġlu Farrugia, who even summoned a small meeting two years ago with Sicilian colleagues from Palazzolo Acreide and Solarino, two cities that have a historical strong link to St Paul.
Dr Farrugia’s backing is essential to this project as it needs an official backing to get off the ground.
The aim now is to move ahead with the set-up of the f oundation as well as to plan and execute some small projects which will be linked to the foundation.
One of these projects is to hold, next year, an exhibition of processional statues of St Paul from Sicily in Malta. A Sicilian curator with vast experience in exhibitions, Rita Di Trio, is already preparing this exhibition which will also be linked to an international symposium. We wish to start building on the Sicily Malta link and slowly spread elsewhere.
Since a number of years now, delegations from Sicily with links to St Paul have started to participate in our feasts, mainly those of Valletta and Rabat, and likewise delegations from Malta are annually participating at the major Sicilian feasts.
There is a growing bond of personal friendship as a result of all this. The fact that Palazzolo Acreide was recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site thanks to my commitment as a World Heritage expert further reaffirms this Sicily-Malta link.
New studies have further confirmed that these cultural links have been there since antiquity. The Foundation for the Voyage of St Paul will further enhance these links and open up to other countries.