Paola will this week recall the day when, 60 years ago, an adoration chapel was opened to the public. Sarah Carabott spoke to the catechists who, while keeping a watchful eye on the chapel for all these years, still contribute to the community’s spiritual needs.

They are mostly known for supplying parishes with Communion wafers, but that was only the way that the religious community identified as Interni made a living.

“Our day is mainly taken up with caring for the adoration chapel, which is open all day, every day, and with the catechism of young children,” Annie Thake says more than 60 years since she joined the female branch of the Society of Christian Doctrine, the MUSEUM.

“In the meantime, we have always had to think of novel ways to support ourselves financially, so we have gone from making lace and producing Communion wafers for several parishes to making figolli and Baby Jesus statues.”

Back then there were 23 Interni members but the number has gradually declined to seven (of whom we were not able to take photos).

For years, making Communion wafers was the Interni’s main way of earning a living.

The youngest two – Agnes Agius and Carmen Farrugia – are both 71, while the oldest, Maria Spiteri, has turned 95. Still, their hopes and prayers for new vocations remain high, Ms Thake says, smiling.

The women’s branch of catechists was set up in 1910 with the help of Ġannina Cutajar whom society founder Saint George Preca later chose as the first Superior General. Her father later provided a small house, with an attached chapel, for the catechism of children.

The female MUSEUM members who have committed themselves fully to this apostolate still live in that house. They are known as Interni, living as a religious community in the same way as nuns live in a nunnery. They pray, eat and sleep under one roof.

They also have a year of training before a board decides whether they can join the community.

Their hopes and prayers for new vocations remain high

Apart from religious instruction, one of their main responsibilities is taking care of the adoration chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist. Before it was first opened to the public, the parish priest would place the Eucharist in the chapel during Carnival for three days of adoration by the Interni that would go on throughout the night. They would also hold an hour of adoration on the Feast of St Michael.

But in 1956, the chapel was opened to the public for daily perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the diamond jubilee will be marked today with Mass at 6pm celebrated by Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona.

Paola is celebrating the diamond jubilee of the adoration chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist.

Tomorrow, a procession will be held from the main parish church, rekindling memories of when the Eucharist was first taken to the chapel in 1948. This will be followed by adoration.

Ms Thake, who remembers that day 60 years ago, notes that when the number of Interni was much larger, they used to take it in turns to spend an hour each in the chapel.

Although there are only seven of them today, the chapel is still open for adoration every day from 7.30am until 8pm, and until noon on Sundays.

Ms Thake, who remembers Saint George Preca’s lessons at the premises, recalls how the Interni, whose uniform once consisted of an għonella and black ankle-length dresses, managed to adapt to the changing times and took up several skills to earn a living.

Starting off with working lace and teaching infants, they learnt to make Communion wafers from Giovanna Mercieca, a former cloister nun. This trade remained their main mode of earning a livelihood for several years.

They made them from scratch, and Ms Thake’s favourite part was mixing the flour to make the wafer sheets. Apart from selling the Communion wafers to parishes, they also sold the remnants to parishioners – and many people still remember them as a weekly treat.

Unfortunately, they stopped producing Communion wafers three years ago, as their falling numbers could no longer keep up the production.

Ms Thake says they miss making the wafers and people still turn up on their doorsteps to buy the remnants. However, they still take orders for small statues of Baby Jesus, figolli and honey rings.

In the meantime they also support parishioners who need to open up about their troubles, as well as being of great help to the parish clergy, including taking care of their church vestments.

In the words of the Paola parish priest Marc Andre’ Camilleri, who “left one mother in Lija and found seven in Paola”, the Interni are like mothers to the clergy.