On October 27, this newspaper featured an article titled ‘Soup... er kitchen’, a service being offered by the Franciscan monastery of Valletta to the needy. Hats of to the friars.
This is not the first time in Malta that friars offered meals to the poor.
The Augustinian friars of St Mark’s, in Rabat, used to give bread to the poor in the locality and soup to the prisoners in Mdina in the 17th century. This results from the archives of the Augustinians in Rabat.
It is known that, in 1728, the Augustinians were trying to leave Rabat and move to St Margaret’s, in Cospicua, fearing an assault by the Ottomans.
The Cathedral Chapter, especially the vicar capitular – because at the time there was no bishop – wrote to the general of the Augustinians in Rome saying he was very upset about the Augustinians leaving St Mark’s.
Among other things, he noted that the poor would suffer a lot if they left St Mark’s because they gave bread to the poor and soup to the inmates of the Mdina prisons.