The Dominicans

I have written about the parish church of St. Lawrence, its collegiate status and its connection to the Order of St. John in several posts already, but it is not the only church in the city with an active congregation.  In this post I will introduce the other main religious centre in Birgu, the Dominican Convent and the Church of the Annunciation that is annexed to it.

St. Dominic was born in 1170 in Castile.  Following his early education, he entered the priesthood and became a Canon of the Cathedral of Osma, where he followed the Augustinian rule.  In the early 13^th century he was one of the leaders of a programme in the south of France which aimed to convert the Cathars, a gnostic sect that was deemed heretical by the Roman Catholic Church.  The programme included public debates, and Dominic saw that only preachers who showed humility and sanctity were successful at winning over the Cathars.

In 1215 he established the prototype for the Dominicans in Toulouse. Together with six others, he followed a monastic life of penance and prayer.  Unlike cloistered monks, however, this group did not separate themselves from secular society.  Instead, they had a license to preach throughout the region, granted by the then Bishop of Toulouse.  In 1217 Dominic was granted authority by Pope Honorius III to establish his group as the Order of Preachers, although it is still popularly known as the Dominicans.

Central to the beliefs and practices of the Dominican order is the Rosary, sometimes known as the Dominican Rosary.  The term refers to both a cycle of prayers commonly used in the Roman Catholic Church, and to the string of beads or knots used to count the prayers as they are being said.  As the Dominicans widened their influence throughout Christian Europe, they were instrumental in the spread of the Rosary and in reinforcing Catholic belief in its power.

The increasing reach of the Dominicans brought them to Malta from Sicily in 1450, and they established a convent in the inland city of Rabat.  Such was their reputation that they were later invited to establish a second convent in Birgu, which they did in 1528.  They were also given the Church of the Annunciation, known locally as Il-Lunzjata, which had been built in 1450.

Almost immediately, however, their church was re-purposed as the parish church of Birgu, from 1530 until 1571.  This was the time when the original parish church, the one dedicated to St. Lawrence, served as the Conventual Church of the Order of St. John.

Birgu’s population had rapidly expanded after the Knights’ arrival in Malta, as they were accompanied by a large number of civilians from Rhodes (from which they had been expelled by the Ottomans in 1522).  The Rhodians established three of their own churches that followed the Greek Rite, but such was their number that they also made up an increasingly large part of the congregation of the Church of the Annunciation.  At the same time there were more and more novices and friars who came to study in Birgu.  As a result the Dominicans were forced to continually modify and enlarge their convent and church, creating a substantial presence in the city.

Since that time the Dominican community in Birgu has played a significant role in the city, most notably during times of war.  During the Great Siege the church provided a refuge for citizens of Birgu and for those fleeing from outlying villages.  The Dominican parish priests also administered the sacraments to sick and wounded soldiers on the city’s defensive fortifications.

During World War Two the church and convent were destroyed during the bombing of 1941.  Initially the Dominicans took refuge in villages in the centre of Malta, but they returned in 1942 and made the Inquisitor’s Palace their temporary home.  For the rest of the war they tended to the physical and spiritual needs of those still living in Birgu, and in 1943 they re-opened the city’s primary school, which had temporarily closed in 1940.  Their convent was rebuilt by 1954 and the present church was inaugurated in 1960.

Today the Dominicans in Birgu continue their mission ‘to praise, to bless and to preach’.  Their reach is not so wide as that of the parish church of St. Lawrence, but nevertheless there is an active congregation, an affiliated band club (about which more in my next post), and on the last Sunday of August the festa of St. Dominic is celebrated with great enthusiasm.