Mass de Requiem at St John’s Co-Cathedral – 07/09/2026
For many years now, the Maltese Association of the Order of Malta has kept the 7th of September as a day of remembrance of those who died in the Great Siege of 1565 and those fallen during the Second World War.
A Mass de Requiem is said at St John’s Co-Cathedral. The members of the Order and the many Maltese who died during the five months of the Siege of 1565 are remembered in the special prayers said during Mass and in the laying of flowers that follows the end of Mass.
Mass this year was said by Monsignor Reverend Paul Vella, Conventual Chaplain Grand Cross ad honorem, assisted by Reverend Fr Andrew Fisher from the United States Federal Association of the Order of Malta.
At the end of Mass, Dr Michael Grech, President of the Association and other members of the Council led the congregation made up of both Maltese and American Knights to the tomb of Fra Don Melchoir de Robles, a Spanish knight who distinguished himself during the Siege where, after prayers were said by Monsignor Vella, a bouquet of flowers was placed in homage to the sacrifice he and others like him did in withstanding, at the cost of their lives, the onslaught of the Muslim forces.
Prayers and flowers were also laid on the tomb of the hero of the Great Siege Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette.
The President of the Maltese Association also laid flowers on the tomb of Grand Matthew Master Festing, the last Grand Master to be buried in the Crypt at St John’s Co-Cathedral.
NBS
