Cathedral Dedication and Consecration

The Mdina St Paul's Cathedral

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Paul, commonly known as St. Paul's Cathedral is the Cathedral dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle. The Cathedral was founded in the 12th century, and according to tradition it stands on the site of where Roman governor Publius met St. Paul following his shipwreck on Malta. Today is the anniversary of its dedication and consecration. Since the 19th century, liturgical functions have been shared between this Cathedral and St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. The first Cathedral which stood on the site is said to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it fell into disrepair during the Arab period (the churches in Malta were looted after the Aghlabid invasion in 870).

The Old Cathedral destroyed by the Sicilian earthquake of 1693

Following the Norman invasion in 1091, Christianity was re-established as the dominant religion in the Maltese Islands. A Cathedral dedicated to St. Paul was built in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Cathedral was built in the Gothic and Romanesque, and it was enlarged and modified a number of times. It was severely damaged in the 1693 Sicily earthquake, and although parts of the building were undamaged, on 11 April 1693 the decision was taken to dismantle the old Cathedral and rebuild it in the Baroque style to a design of Lorenzo Gafà. The choir and sacristy, which had survived the earthquake, were incorporated into the new cathedral. Works began in 1696, and the building was almost complete by 1702. It was consecrated by Bishop Davide Cocco Palmieri on 8 October 1702. The Cathedral was fully completed on 24 October 1705, when work on the dome was finished. It is considered as Lorenzo Gafa’s masterpiece.
In the late 1720s, some medieval houses to the south of the cathedral were demolished in order to make way for a square, the Bishop's Palace and the Seminary (now the Cathedral Museum). The square in front of the Cathedral was enlarged in the early 19th century following the demolition of some medieval buildings. The Cathedral was damaged in another earthquake in 1856, when the 18th-century frescoes on the dome were destroyed. Many of the paintings around the Cathedral were done by famous artists like Mattia Preti, Giuseppe Cali, and the three Sicilian brothers Vincenzo, Antonio and Francesco Manno. The dome was damaged a few times and the present work belongs to Mario Caffaro Rore. Many artifacts from the pre-1693 Cathedral survived the earthquake and were reused to decorate the new cathedral. These include a late Gothic–early Renaissance baptismal font dating back to 1495.

Inside the Mdina Cathedral

Most importantly, let us remember that this feast is a great reminder that WE ARE THE CHURCH, the Mystical Body of Christ, and in spite of the beautiful churches we have, where we gather as parishioners to pray, we the humans and the Christians form the church, because as Jesus said once 'where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.'