It takes sheer devotion and total dedication to be a bearer of the statue of the dead body of Christ, known as ‘Il-Monument’, in today’s Good Friday procession leaving from the Church of St. Mary of Jesus in Valletta.

The statue which is estimated to weigh more than a tonne, is carried through the uphill streets of Valletta by four bearers. They heave the statue from beneath the damask lining it, and have to be led by a team leader as they blindly negotiate their way up and down the Valletta steps and narrow streets.

“I have to give them exact instructions on how many steps they have to take and which direction to take as they cannot see a thing,” said leader Mario Micallef, who for many years used to be a bearer in the statue himself.

It is considered to be one the heaviest statues in Malta and the bearers consider it as a test of pain endurance. “For each one of us it’s like carrying five sacks of cement on the shoulder,” says Pawlu Grima one of the bearers.

In fact, after the strain of carrying the weight some get a lump of hard skin on their necks – which doesn’t go down except by an operation. “Last year, half way through I my lump started bleeding hard. But I kept on going – that’s what you do. There’s no quitting in this. By the end of the procession I had blood all over,” said Jonathan Grima, while showing the lump on the neck, still visible, almost a year later.

Under the statue it’s hot, stuffy and crowded. The bearers are handed four towels each at the start of the procession. “By the time we get here we’re wet in sweat - we look like we’ve jumped into the sea,” said bearer Pawlu Xerri.

Despite the hardships and the pain, none of the bearers would give up on carrying the statue. Throughout the two hour long procession they sustain themselves with sweets for energy and to prevent fainting from low blood pressure. They are even checked by a doctor at the end of the procession.

The age old tradition of the bearers drinking rum to help endure the pain, is apparently no longer followed.

Good Friday processions are held in Rabat, Valletta, Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua, Zejtun, Zebbug, Naxxar, Qormi, Gharghur, Luqa, Ghaxaq, Mosta and Paola. In Gozo, two are held in Victoria, (St George Basilica and St Maria Cathedral) and in Nadur, Xaghra, Zebbug, Xewkija and Qala.