Today the church in Malta celebrates the feast of St Publius. He was the chief of
the island of Malta when St Paul was shipwrecked here in 60 AD. He welcomed St
Paul, St Luke and the 276 sailors who ended up drifting to shore on planks of
wood from the broken vessel on which they had travelled. Publius was very
generous and hospitable to all these people, and when St Paul found out that
his father was sick with fever and a bout of dysentery, he went to his house
and healed him, whereupon many other natives came to be healed of various
ailments. Eventually St Paul ordained St Publius as the first Bishop of Malta.
Later on in his life he was captured and martyred by the cruel Emperor Hadrian.
Most probably he was sent to the amphitheatre and devoured by a lion, as his
statue always shows him with a lion next to him. He was canonized in 1634. The parish church of Floriana is dedicated to
him, and the impressive ceiling of the church was painted by Emvin Cremona with
various scenes from the life of St Publius.
No comments:
Post a Comment