Church of Our Lady of Damascus in Valletta
The Church of Our Lady of Damascus ( Greek Εκκλησία της Παναγίας της Δαμασκού , Maltese Il-Knisja tal-Madonna ta 'Damascu ) is a church of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Malta in the Maltese capital Valletta .
history
The icon of Mary from Damascus came to Malta in 1530 through the knights of St. John of Rhodes , where numerous Greek refugees from Rhodes have also lived since 1522. Here the icon was initially kept in the chapel of Our Lady of Damascus in Birgu .
Giovanni Calamia , a nobleman from Rhodes, initially planned to build two Greek churches for two Greek icons who had come to Malta with his family. When Calamia died in Sicily in 1579 , one church was already under construction. According to his last will, the church was continued and completed in 1580. In 1587 the icon of the Madonna of Damascus was moved to the new Greek Catholic Church of Valletta.
During the Second World War on March 24, 1942, planes of the German Air Force attacked the city of Valletta. In the process, the city's Melkite Greek Catholic Church was completely destroyed and more than 30 icons were lost. Under Papas George Schiro 'after the war, a new church in the New Byzantine style was built and consecrated on August 15, 1951 by Archbishop Georgios Halavazis (1881–1957). The icon of the Madonna of Damascus was saved and is still kept here. On December 1, 2016, the icon of Mary was removed from the apse and placed at eye level with the faithful in order to bring them closer to them.
Use of the church
Today the church is used not only by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Malta , but also by the Italo-Albanian Church , the Armenian Apostolic Church , the Russian Orthodox Church , the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Belarusian Orthodox Church .
Patronage
The title of Our Lady of Damascus dates back to 1203. At that time a wonderful oil came from a picture of Mary in Damascus , with which the blind Sultan of Damascus got his eyesight back in 1203. As a thank you, the Sultan left an eternal lamp burning in front of the picture. The icon was brought to Malta by the Knights of Saint John in 1530 and came to the Greek Catholic Church of Our Lady of Damascus in 1587. The Greek Catholic Christian Myrna Nazzour - the apparition of Our Lady of Ṣūfāniyya - had a similar appearance in an image of Mary in her apartment in the Damascen district of Ṣūfāniyya (northeast of the old city gate Bāb Tūmā , i.e. outside the old town) . In 1975, a Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Our Lady of Damascus was opened in the al-Qusūr district of Damascus , whose name commemorates the apparition of Mary in the city of 1203. The Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Damascus every May 6th.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Nicholas Joseph Santoro: Mary in Our Life: Atlas of the Names and Titles of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Their Place in Marian Devotion. iUniverse, Bloomington (Indiana) 2011. Our Lady of Damascus, p. 405.
- ^ J. Brincat: Il-Kappella ta 'SM Damaxxena ~ Birgu . Kappelli Maltin, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
- ↑ Our Lady of Damascus Melkite Greek Rite church , in: Valletta ( Memento from February 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Malta-Canada.com.
- ↑ Our Lady of Damascus, Church History - 71 years ago: The Destruction of the Greek-Catholic Church in Valletta. Greek Catholic Malta, accessed June 1, 2020.
- ↑ Our Lady of Damascus, The icon of “Our Lady of Damascus”: on its way to a new destination. Greek Catholic Malta, December 5, 2016.
- ↑ George Mifsud Montanaro: Orthodox Churches in Malta ( Memento of March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Diocesan Ecumenical Commission, Malta 2010.
- ^ Robert Joseph Fox: Light from the East Miracles of Our Lady of Soufanieh. Fatima Family Apostolate, 2002. Waite Park, Minnesota, 15–15.
- ↑ Church of Our Lady of Damascus (كنيسة سيدة دمشق, in Arabic). Qenshrin.com to http://www.alepposuryoye.com (editor of the encyclopedia of churches and monasteries).
Coordinates: 35 ° 53 ′ 55.9 " N , 14 ° 30 ′ 52.7" E