Order of Malta

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Mass de Requiem – 7 September 2023

September 7 2023

Members of the Maltese Association together with a group of members from the Federal, American and Western Associations visiting Malta, gathered in the sacristy of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta on Thursday 7^th September at 8.00 a.m. for the traditional Mass de requiem for those members of the Order who gave their life in the defense of Christianity during the Great Siege of 1565.

The Reverend Monsignor Victor Zammit McKeon, who celebrated Holy Mass, exhorted the congregation to also remember and pray for the victims of the Second World War and of all other world conflicts including those happening during the present time with particular reference to the ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Above all, we must pray for peace in the world.

At the end of Holy Mass, the Members of the Order together with the Reverend Monsignor Victor Zammit McKeon processed first to the grave of one of the great heroes of the Great Siege, Fra’ Don Melchior de Robles, which is situated in the Chapel of the Langue of Auvergne, dedicated to St Sebastian, where prayers were offered for the repose of his soul.

The procession then moved down very solemnly into the Grand Masters’ Crypt lying beneath the high altar of the Co-Cathedral. A total of 12 Grand Masters lie at rest in the Grand Masters’ Crypt, the last to be buried there being Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing.

Monsignor Zammit McKeon recited a memorial prayer at the sarcophagus containing the remains of the Great Siege Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette. The concluding prayer was very fittingly the Prayer of the Order, which the Maltese Association President H.E. Daniel de Petri Testaferrata invited those present to recite together in the English language.

After prayers the Maltese Association President H.E. Daniel de Petri Testaferrata and Timothy Jeffries, Chancellor of the Western Association of the USA, laid wreaths of remembrance on the tombstone of Grand Master Festing.

Members of the Association then processed back to the Sacristy, where a commemorative group photograph was taken.

The photos of the event, kindly taken by Daniel Benson Camilleri are available at the gallery below: