Our Father Saint Paul

The statue of St. Paul by Melchiore Gafa

Today Malta celebrates the national feast day of St Paul, our father in faith. We commemorate the shipwreck of St Paul on the island in the year 60 AD. The event is graphically described in the Acts of the Apostles chapters 27 and 28. It was a tragic event which proved to be providential to the Maltese population at that time. After Paul was converted on his way to Damascus, his life changed completely and he became an itinerant preacher, healer and motivator. He ended up converting the whole Maltese population after they received him and the 276 sailors with him who were shipwrecked off the broken vessel. The Maltese were ruled by various rulers over the past 2 millennia, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Spanish, the Knights of Malta, the French and the British until we gained Independence in 1964. But Malta remained Christian throughout history. Today we celebrate this religious national feast, and even though the weather is pretty bad, the annual procession with the statue of St Paul will be held tomorrow instead of today February 10.