The original ideal of fuga mundi and its application to female monastic life in seventeenth-century Malta

Abstract

The origins of monasticism in Malta are lost in the mists of unknown ages. Several traditions exist of ascetics living at Mellieħa and Rabat in Malta and Qala in Gozo. However, no written documentation exists to support them. The earliest documentary sources known to date are the letters of Gregory the Great which, while dealing with issues in the Local Church, include references to monastic communities. There is no evidence that these existed in Malta. Documentary sources from monasteries established in Malta only emerge from the fifteenth-century onwards. This study will first delve into the emergence of monasticism in Christian context and then will proceed to focus on these earliest documents that detail monastic life on the island in the modern period.