The fifth issue of the Miranda Collection magazine will be out with Times of Malta tomorrow.

The magazine is the second in the collection focusing on St John’s Co-Cathedral, which was built by the Knights as a place of worship and as a monument projecting the image the Order wanted to portray of itself: a heroic order of religious spirit, chivalry, nobility and military valour.

This magazine focuses on the Co-Cathedral's oratory, the sacristy and the museum with its surfeit of artefacts, vestments and silverware.

The oratory, built for the adoration of the sacrament and the instruction of
novice knights, is notable for its altarpiece, Caravaggio’s largest painting and his
masterpiece, the Beheading of St John.

A monument in its own right, the oratory is also adorned with other exquisite paintings, sculptures and fine marble works.

Over the years, the grand masters and knights donated gifts of high artistic
value and made enormous contributions to further enrich their conventual church.

Built just after two great victories of Christian Europe over the Ottomans, the Great Siege of Malta and the Battle of Lepanto, the Order wanted the Co-Cathedral to be a triumphant representation of its political and religious
achievements.