Thursday, January 17, 2008

The church of St. Paul Shipwrecked.

In Valletta we went to Merchants Street where we came across the church of St. Paul Shipwrecked. It contained many unique artifacts some of which are pictured below.

One of a complete set of Stations of the Cross carved on great pieces of mother of pearl.


A relic of St. Paul's arm.


This is a silver statue of St. Paul's head on top of this piece of pillar. The pillar was cut from the pillar on which he was beheaded. The rest of the pillar is in Rome, right near where we live, in the church of San Paolo alle tre fontane. F


Check out the silver filligree flowers covering the base of the pillar!


The lovely ceiling depicting scenes from St. Paul's life.


And a large wooden, gilded statue of the saint.


Another statue of the same type, this time depicting St. Michael.


This is a monstrance. It's complete silver, and is interesting because the front is a panel depicting St. John the Baptist. You spin this cylinder around to reveal the SSMM, which delivers the theme of St. John being the precursor of Christ.

2 comments:

JMR said...

Wow, these pictures are wonderful! Thanks very much for putting them up. I hope you don't mind that I'm reading your blog, though I don't even know you. I've been to some of these places myself (though not Malta) and I really appreciate being able to see the pictures you've taken! I love Europe, where the proofs of the Faith are still so evident everywhere...
I hope you're having a good time!

Aggie said...

The mother of pearl stations are gorgeous as is the ceiling paintings of the life of St. Paul. Didn't see any "ubiquitous limestone" in this church. OK that's the third time I've used this new word tonight, so now I can claim it as my own.