Qormi 1530-1798 : side-lights on its social history

Abstract

In recent years various publications and theses have been written on the residence in Malta of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. These works sometimes tend to give the impression that the administration of the Order simply centred its energies on the building up of a new city with a Conventual Church and the fortifying of the Island by setting up defences before and after the Great Siege of 1565. Unfortunately, the role played by the Maltese in their respective "casali" has been over shadowed by these facts and has somewhat been neglected. There is as yet no complete written history of Qormi. One looks forward to the day when people like Professor Joseph Galea and Mr. Joseph Cardona publish a handsome volume on the general history of the town of Qormi. Their publications so far have been limited to articles in local papers and a monograph each of pamphlet size: both Galea's Il-Knisja ta' Hal- Qormi, biċċa storja (Malta 1928, pp.26) and Cardona's Ġrajjiet tal-Knejjes ta' Hal Qormi (Malta 1947, pp.15), as even the titles suggest only deal with the history of the Parish Church and chapels. Likewise the late Mr. Carmelo Psaila published Il-Knisja tal-Hlas ta' Hal Qormi (Malta 1930, PP. 18) and Il-Knisja Arcimatrici ta' Hal Qormi bil-ġrajja tagħha (Malta 1937, pp.224). But also these have only the above mentioned churches within their scope. There is a number of historical novels which could be of interest to the general reader, especially when they come from the pen of Qormi born writers of outstanding literary merits like Guze Muscat Azzopardi, Professor J. Galea and J. Cardona. These writers take for their historical background scenes from the village life of Qormi or else depict a prominent character, like the mayor, for their novel. But the historical frame work of these novels mostly relate to other periods of Maltese history than that of the knights.