The Sanctuary of the Virgin of Mellieħa and the Knights of St John

Abstract

The Sanctuary of the Virgin at Mellieħa had its origins as a humble cave-church serving the surrounding lay population. The stylistic idiosyncrasies of the frescoed titular altarpiece of the Virgin and Child point to the late 12th or early 13th centuries. This fresco, affectionately known as the "Madonna tal-Mellieħa", is in the Siculo-Byzantinesque tradition characteristic of Late Medieval Sicily. There is a vernacular quality about this Marian shrine and the objets d'art extant within it. Obvious examples are the numerous ex-voto tabelle. The Mellieħa Sanctuary beneficed from the arrival of the Knights of the Order of St John to Malta in 1530, particularly through the direct and informed patronage of important Knights, and works of art of a more sophisticated nature than had previously been donated to it, began to be commissioned for its embellishment. The shrine's vernacular nature was as a result somewhat lessened. [Excerpt]