Mdina Cathedral dedication

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). 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.

This is the old Cathedral before its destruction. 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 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, the Bishop's Palace and the Seminary (now the Cathedral Museum) were also built. 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. 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.'