St. Catherine's Old Church, Żejtun

The origins of the church are unclear.[8] In the 19th century, historians linked the foundation of the church with the expulsion of the Arabs, following Count Roger's presumed raid in 1090/91.[9] These links betrayed attempts to pre-date the veneration of St. Catherine of Alexandria with the Byzantine-Greek community living on Malta prior to the Muslim invasions of the 9th century.[9] Modern historians, however, argue that Christianity in Malta was reintroduced by King Roger in 1127, and consolidated itself thereafter.[10] Following Sicily, and on the Byzantine character of the iconography of post-Islamic times, it appears that Greek influence at first was supreme, though the Normans themselves usually favoured the Latin clergy, especially the higher clergy.[10]

Some historians maintain that the foundations of the old parish of Żejtun date back as early as the 12th century, when the musical sector of the Cathedral of Mdina was instituted, and the original chapel is in fact believed to have been built on land that formed part of the revenue of the Cathedral precentor – “La prebenda di santa Caterina.”[11] The church continued to be funded by the Cathedral Precentor over the following centuries, with the coats of arms of several of incumbents appearing on the vestry walls.[12]

In any case, by the 14th century, a small early medieval chapel[13] dedicated to St. Catherine served the south eastern region of Malta. It was already a parish church in the early 15th century, and was one of the eight mother churches on Malta.[2] In fact, in 1436, the church appeared in the de Mello rollo. Bishop Senatore de Mello asked four cathedral canons to investigate and list all prebends,[n 1] canons and other beneficiaries in the diocese of Malta, as well as the incomes and the names of all priests benefiting from these sources. In this list, or rollo, twelve chapels are listed as the first form of the islands' parishes. The chapel of St. Catherine of Żejtun was included in this list under the village name 'Bisqallin.'

This chapel stood halfway between the two old cores of Żejtun, that is, half a mile distant from Bisqallin and Ħal Bisbut. This chapel had a rectangular shape, with a simple façade. It had a pointed arched entrance and roofed with the local xorok method. Probably, the present church was built on the footprint of the old chapel, with the current building's nave now corresponding with the old chapel walls. The old chapel's façade, however, was turned northwards - as is a statue of St. Gregory just outside the church grounds - and faced the Cathedral of Mdina, the old medieval capital in the centre of the island. The small and primitive medieval chapel served as the parish church of Żejtun for a long period of time.

The lands administered from this chapel were very large. The parish incorporated the whole south-eastern portion of Malta, and was the farthest parish from the fortified city of Mdina. All the lands making up today's Żejtun, Ħaż-Żabbar, Ħal Għaxaq, San Ġorġ ta’ Birzebbugia, Marsaxlokk, Delimara, St. Thomas' Bay and Marsascala, as well as a number of other small villages and lost hamlets, all fell under the parish's direct responsibility.

In addition to this wide territorial responsibility, or possibly because of it, the Church enjoyed a greater variety of ecclesiastical services and celebrations when compared to the other early parishes in Malta, with the Church being second only to the Mdina Cathedral.[14]

By 1470, the church building had become a recognised national and international landmark and shrine, with sailors commending themselves for the saint's intercession: "God help us and St. Catherine of Malta."[n 2][16] In fact, on the outer walls of the church, there are various maritime related graffiti.[13][17] St. Catherine was the protector of sailors and those who work in lighthouses. Other graffiti include the star of David punctured by an arrow.

Nave with true Gothic quadripartite vault at St. Catherine's Old Church.[18]

The original chapel remained in use until 1492, when it was rebuilt and enlarged. This was commemorated by an inscription, which has since been lost.[n 3] The Maltese historian Gian Francesco Abela noted how the church was rebuilt, quoting this inscription in his writings. The same inscription was repeated by A. Ferris in 1866 and E.B. Vella in 1927. While there is a faded and partial Latin inscription in the dome, this reads differently from the one reported in other sources.[n 4] According to this later inscription, the church was enlarged in 1606 during the episcopate of Bishop Gargallo, and the office of archpriest M. Burlo.[21] This further enlargement must have consisted in the addition of a transept vaulted with a true Gothic quadripartite vault, which is an unusual feature in Maltese churches.[21] The church also has a sizable parvis.

Using information from the apostolic visit by Mgr. Pietro Dusina in 1575, Gian Francesco Abela noted how the Cathedral precentor drew around 500 scudi in annual income from the lands belonging to St. Catherine's Old Church.[22]

According to a number of inscriptions, the bosses of the arches' intersections in the rib-groins were erected in 1593 and 1603 respectively. With the addition of the transept, this was the first church in Malta to be given the form of a latin cross.[23] With the crossing of the main axis of the enlarged church, and the construction of a new transept, a dome was probably erected in 1606, the date in the dome inscription. The dome is low and saucer-like in shape, and is probably one of the earliest examples still in existence in Malta.[21]

Detail of the northern semitransept of Saint Catherine's Old Church, with an inscription marking the year 1593.

The main façade has a Renaissance doorway, with flanked by a set of pilasters crowned by an architrave, a cornice and a circular oculus in the masonry above. A small bell-cot, probably added later and constructed out of reused stones, rests on the gable, which straightens out on each side with a low parapet wall.[21] Both the transept and the parapet walls are buttressed externally. The buttresses on the nave walls were added in the 19th century, and were the design of Giuseppe Hyzler. The buttress supporting the transept's walls, however, is larger and far older - giving the eastern side of the church the appearance of a fortress.[21]

In fact, the church was used as part of the defences of the Hospitaller Knights of St. John the Baptist against the Ottoman Turks.[24] The new transept, nearly a third higher than the nave, provided commanding views of the nearby bays.[24] High within the walls of the transept, a corridor was inserted with windows lined up on the sites of two new low lying forts, which were to be built at St. Thomas, Marsascala, and St. Lucian in Marsaxlokk. Hence, St. Catherine's old church became an intermediate military signalling point, forewarning Mdina, Cottonera and Valletta about any attack by Ottoman navy ships entering these nearby ports.[24]

Commemorative plaque of the raid on St. Catherine's Old Church.

On July 6, 1614, an Ottoman force of sixty ships (including 52 galleys) under the command of Khalil Pasha[25] tried to land at Marsaxlokk Bay, but were repelled by the artillery from the newly constructed St. Lucian Tower. The fleet laid anchor at St Thomas Bay in Marsaskala, and landed 5,000 to 6,000 men unopposed.[26] Some of the Ottomans attacked St. Lucian Tower, while the rest of the force pillaged the village of Żejtun. The raiders burnt the farms and fields of the area, and damaged St. Catherine's Old Church. The attack is described in a commemorative plaque engraved close to the main altar of the church, which states that:

"In the early hours of Sunday, July 6, 1614, a Turkish army landed from 60 galleys, disembarking six thousand men in the place called Ghizira in Saint Thomas’ creek. The Turks raided the nearby casali, arriving right up to the farmlands held under the feud of Bulebel. They sacked these townships, burnt farmland and did much damage to the main church of Saint Catherine’s and all the others. Many were caught and killed, and they were made to retire back to the quays. No Christian was captured, but twenty were injured in the attack. From that day until September 11, 1614, all those born in this parish had to be baptised elsewhere. Extracted from the second book of baptisms for this parish."

The finding of human bones in a number of secret passages of this church was, for many years, linked with this attack.

During the Maltese uprising against the French, the church was fortified and used as a hospital for wounded soldiers.[27]

The church was restored in 2007, with public authorities investing Lm63,000 (€146,751) in rehabilitation works.[28] While the condition of the church was good, localised defects were found in the masonry. Preventive protection works included the replacement of crumbling stone, the clean up of the front, the removal of the cement cover on the lower parts of the façades and re-pointing to avoid water seepage. Part of the church parvis was also re-laid.[28]

Secret passageway, with stacked bones, in St. Catherine's Old Church.

The secret passageways were found during waterproofing works on the dome.

In April 1969, local newspapers reported the finding of a large number of human bones, and three secret passageways which were uncovered by workmen.[32][33] Local legends always narrated the existence of secret passages within the walls of the old church, but over the years attempts to prove this proved futile.[34]

The discovery took place when three workmen, Ċikku Żammit, Carmelo Spiteri and his sixteen year old nephew Grezzju Vella were waterproofing the church's vaulted roof. Vella was working near the flat dome of the church and unwittingly began to scrape at a narrow crack between two stone slabs.[34] When the crack widened, he threw a stone inside, expecting to hear it go down into the church.[34] Instead it appeared to fall nearby, and Vella realised that there must be something underneath the roof. Vella called the others, and soon they were joined by Fr. Palmier, who was responsible for the church, and by Ġan-Marì Debono, who was the sacristan.[34]

On removing of a large stone slab, a dark void appeared.[32] As only Vella could pass through the hole in the roof, he was tied to a rope and given a box of matches to inspect the site. The boy came upon a number of human skeletons, a discovery which left him deeply traumatised. Vella only returned to the church in 2011, notwithstanding that he lives only a few kilometres away.[34]

At the beginning of the third secret corridor, some engravings bearing the initials V.A. and C.Z. were found - along with the date 19.02.09.[32] This indicated that the corridors had already been discovered prior to 1969. After the last discovery, the parish priest traced a certain Carmelo Zahra who confessed that he had entered the passages when he was a young boy together with some other individuals. He claimed that they had seen skeletons dressed as soldiers in the passages and that they had some weapons and flags with them. According to Zahra, these remains disappeared and he was warned not to mention the discovery again.[32]

The few remains that were collected during the 1969 discovery included a wooden shoe sole with a high heel, a small gilded wooden cross of Byzantine design, odd bits of a gilded wooden frame (perhaps an icon), three coins (two bronze with the cross of the Order, the other gold), pieces of pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries, fragments of animal bones and a part of a chain-mail armour vest.[32] These remains are stored in one of the rooms of the church.[32]

No evidence exists on the provenance of the bones, or how they ended up in these secret passages. Speculation suggests that these were the bones of unfortunate victims of the 1614 Turkish raid,[32] while others suggest the void was used as an ossuary.[34] Between 1978 and 1980 studies on the bones indicated that the skeletons had probably been exhumed and moved there from a cemetery.[32] Moreover, it was found that the skeletal remains belonged to individuals who had died within a short period of time.[34]