Sliema’s parish church of Stella Maris has been elevated to an Archpresbyterial, with its parish priest henceforth carrying the title of archpriest.

Parishioners met the news with spontaneous applause on Saturday June 16. The decision to promote the parish was announced through a decree published by archbishop Charles J. Scicluna.

The parsh is currently led by Mons. Anton Portelli.

The Stella Maris parish is the first parish in Sliema and the vicinity. The town originally formed part of the Birkirkara parish. Sliema’s first church dedicated to the Virgin Mary was built close to Tigne’ Fort, but this small church was desecrated during the rule of the French.

Crews aboard galleys and other vessels used to hail (‘Sliema’ in Maltese) the Virgin Mary as they sailed past this chapel, eventually giving the locality its name.

As Sliema grew at the start of the 19th century, a chapel was built and dedicated to Our Lady of Graces. It still stands on High Street, opposite the Stella Maris parish church.

This chapel sufficed for several years, but around the mid-19th century Sliema’s residents increased in number, and along came the need for a bigger church.

In April 1853, the construction of a larger church commenced, the church dedicated to Our Lady Star of the Sea (Stella Maris). The church became an independent parish by means of a decree of the then-Archbishop Scicluna, dated December 23, 1878.

During these 140 years of Sliema’s first parish church of Stella Maris it made way to the following four parishes:

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Sliema (1918)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Gzira (1921)

Saint Gregory the Great, Sliema (1940)

Jesus of Nazareth, Sliema (1973)