Province of St. Mark

Augustinian Presence in other locations

Ancient Augustinian Presence in Mellieha

There are many historians, both Maltese as well as foreigners, who hold and give proof that the Augustinian friars used to keep alive the devotion to Our Lady of Mellieha, from the early stages of the Augustinian Order. Some also state that the establishment of the Augustinians in Mellieha could have taken place when the Vandals drove out the followers of St. Augustine from Northern Africa and some of them came to Malta.

It is certain that after the completion of the priory in Valletta, in 1584, the Augustinian friars were enthusiastic to continue spreading the devotion to Our Lady, which was already in the generous hearts of the people living in Mellieha. After the Great Siege by the Turks in 1565, the Sanctuary remained abandoned for many years. For this reason, after a great deal of insistence from the friars, on 27th July 1584, permission was given to the friars to take charge of the church and build a priory where they could live and exert their religious duties. However, not everybody was pleased with this concession of the church to the Augustinian friars, as some considered the permission given could have been bribed. No clear proof can be found in the documents which exist, that during this period the friars started building a new priory or restored an existent one. The only ambiguous reference is found in Acta Sacrae Visitae on 8th January 1596. Two days later, we can find that an order was given to Fr. Awrelju Asciak to remain vicar on his own in the Sanctuary at Mellieha. It is certain that by 1600, when Fr. Asciak died, the Sanctuary was still under the jurisdiction of the Augustinian friars. It is good to know that in the Cathedral archive, in Manuscript No. 54, one can find the names of four Augustinian friars who administered in that Sanctuary. In 1603, the Sanctuary passed into the hands of Fr. Bernardo Cassar as a beneficiary and nominated parish priest and rector of the grotto. From that day onwards, the Augustinian presence in Mellieha ended forever.

Ancient Augustinian Presence in Pieta'

Between the last half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the Augustinian friars wanted to consolidate their presence in the island of Malta, apart from that in Gozo. We find that in 1556, the friars erected a new priory in Rabat, after the previous one, was demolished in 1551. In 1571, a contract was signed with the Order of St. John who donated the piece of land in Valletta so that a priory could be built there. In 1584, the Sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Mellieha was taken once again and now in 1617, they got hold of the church of Our Lady of Sorrows at Pieta’. This church was built in 1590 in the same place where a cemetery, for those who had died from plague, used to be. Fr. Luca Zinghier, an Augustinian, a great dovotee of Our Lady and of the souls in purgatory, struggled a lot to get hold of this church, in the end of Marsamxett harbour at Pieta’, so that the souls which were buried in that cemetery, could benefit from masses, which were going to be celebrated by the friars. In 1617, he managed to obtain this church, with the permission to build a small priory for the friars. However, in the beginning of the 17th century, with the issue of Pope Innocence X’s decree Instaurandae, to monitor more the religious observance, the Augustinian priory at Pieta’, as well as that of Gozo, had to be closed and handed over to the Bishop of Malta. As ordered by the named decree, the little wealth, which the priory possessed was distributed to the nuns’ monasteries of St. Catherine and of St. Mary Magdalene in Valletta and the nuns of St. Scholastica. This is how the Augustinian presence ended in the ancient priory dedicated to Our Lady of Pieta’.