Good Friday processions 5

This final post shows several statues taken out in processions all over Malta on Good Friday, and we visit today a few other parishes and admire a select samples that are just as impressive and devotional. The first one is from the parish of Vittoriosa and here all the statues are clothed in velvet and silk, presenting an elegant display of quaint drapery with beautifully sculpted faces and hands and feet. His first one shows the Agony in the Garden.

The second photo is the image of the dying Christ, a miraculous crucifix that is taken out in procession only on special occasions. Revered in a Franciscan church in Valletta, this crucifix was done by the Sicilian friar Innocenzo da Petralia Sottana around 1630. This image usually is taken out combined with the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, a week before Good Friday.

Next from Luqa parish, we have the ‘Ecce Homo’ (Behold the Man) image of Jesus with hands tied after the flogging, also holding a reed in his hands and robed in red. Then we have the close-up of Jesus the Redeemer, falling under the cross from Paola church. It is a tradition in Maltese processions that this statue is always preceded by a group of buglers, playing a solemn fanfare, most often scouts or bandsmen from the local band club. Lastly, we have a statue of Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus carry the cross, from the parish of Zejtun. (click on each photo to enlarge)