This week, Żabbar is celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Grace.
This evening’s functions will mark the 60th anniversary of the solemn crowning of the titular painting by Archbishop Michael Gonzi, in front of an immense crowd and with the participation of five other bishops.
The centuries-old devotion to Our Lady in this parish was offi-cially acknowledged by Church authorities.
Today, people will also be able to admire the recently restored statue of Our Lady of Grace, a work which was meticulously completed with great love by artist and restorer Aaron Camilleri Cauchi.
This old and deep devotion has made Żabbar a centre of faith and hope expressed by pilgrimages, prayers, ex-voto and other offerings. Its history is a sequence of events which focuses on both personal as well as national experiences.
The feast which, as early as the 16th century, was already celebrated on September 8, attracted large crowds from all over the island. After the Great Siege of 1565, thanksgiving celebrations were organised on the same day in Valletta; so in 1589, the Żabbar parish opted to start celebrating its feast on the following Sunday.
During the following decades, the population continued to in-crease, and in 1615 Żabbar was declared an independent parish by Bishop Cagliares (1614-1653) so that the people could be given more spiritual attention and care.
It was then that the local population and visitors were encouraged, on the example of other parishes, to have a portable statue to be used in a procession which was already being held from the small chapel of Our Lady of Grace to the vice-parish dedicated to St James the Apostle in the old quarters of the village.
Processional statues in this period were mostly mannequins dressed in precious lama and brockade. Examples of these still survive at Vittoriosa (St Lawrence and St Joseph) and in St Do-menic’s parish in Valletta (Our Lady of the Rosary).
At Żabbar, although the statue has been lost, we are lucky to have a its detailed description in an inventory drawn up at the request of Bishop Davide Cocco Palmieri (1684-1711) on September 10, 1699.
This important document mentions a linen-stuffed torso (trunk), a cage-frame with jointed limbs, supported on a wooden frame.
The head, hands and feet were made of papier mâché painted in flesh colour.
The statue was dressed in rich vestments. Statues like this were probably imported from Spain or Naples, which at that time was following the same artistic styles.
Papier mâché statues began to be produced in Malta only after 1740, making such processional statues more affordable to the parishes and confraternities. Bishop Cocco Palmieri’s inventory of 1699 clearly shows that the Żabbar statue was of foreign origin.
The statue showed Our Lady holding Baby Jesus on her right arm wearing a long white tunic of lama, a richly woven cloth in gold threads, with short open sleeves and gold-thread lace trimmings.
On her head, she bore a wig of chestnut-coloured hair on which a silver crown was placed. Another silver crown was also placed on Baby Jesus’ head. On her shoulders the statue had a cobalt-blue mantel with fringes flowing down to her ankles.
A few days before the feast day, all components of this statue were assembled together by an artist and mounted on a wooden pedestal decorated in various colours.
Periodically, the head, hands and feet of the statue were retouched. In fact, it is recorded that in 1791, Fr Salvatore Lacorte, the artist who designed the Żabbar Sanctuary high altar, retouched the statue as well.
To make it easier for the statue to be carried in procession, in 1736, a new decorated platform, standing on four round legs, was produced by Alessandro D’Amato, who two years later also restored the main door of the sanctuary.
The annual procession with this statue added enthusiasm to the already deep devotion of the parishioners and visitors. The main streets began to be decorated with palm and olive branches, long ropes of ivy leaves (liedna) and flags.
A small orchestra consisting of string instruments, one or two drums and a portable organ, accompanied by a small choir and a couple of tenors, added to the solemnity of the occasion and gave everyone the opportunity to participate, adding, without doubt, intervals for invocations and prayers.
Soon after the feast was over, the statue would be dismantled and all parts and vestments were carefully preserved for the following year. These parts together with other ornaments and church decorations were still preserved in the sacristy adjacent to the sanctuary even after the new statue was installed. Unfortunately they were completely destroyed when the sacristy received a direct hit during enemy action on July 1, 1940.
During all these years, the devotion to Our Lady of Grace at Żabbar continued to increase and develop. People kept coming to the village not only on the feast day but throughout the whole year.
While on a pastoral visit in 1636, Bishop Balaguer Cama-rasa (1635-1663) said that in Żabbar one could find the greatest devotion to Our Lady in the whole of the island. People continued to visit this sanctuary every day to ask the intercession of Mary, render thanks to God and Our Lady for the favours recieved, or to offer ex votos of different kinds, which covered all the walls of the sanctuary.
All this, together with the demands of the changes that were taking place, prompted the clergy and the people to start thinking to have a permanent statue exhibited in the sanctuary.
By the last decade of the 18th century, parish priest Fr Carlo Caruana commissioned Mariano Gerada (1766-1823), one of the leading sculptors on the island, who had just returned from Spain, to produce a new statue for the parish.
The desire of the local population and devotees was finally fulfilled.
Today, after 200 years, this statue, which has been carefully and professionaly restored by Aaron Camilleri Cauchi, is admired by one and all who visit the sanctuary or come to pray for her intercession.
The author thanks Żabbar parish priest Fr Sebastian Caruana, Fr Edgar Vella, Fr Silvester Bonavia, Aaron Camilleri Cauchi and Eugene Montanaro.