As the divorce debate rages, practising Catholics are getting hold of their rosary beads to pray for unity among families and for Malta to “be safeguarded against the introduction of divorce”.

“A few hundred” are expected to attend a 24-hour rosary chain on Borġ in-Nadur hill outside Birżebbuġa on Saturday, where the Marian prayer will be recited on the half-hour. The prayer starts at 7 p.m. and ends at the same time on Sunday.

The area is a place of devotion for people who believe claims by Anġelik Caruana that the Virgin Mary appears to him and gives him messages, which are then interpreted and recorded.

He said he was told by the Virgin that divorce was the “seed of the devil” in an apparition on September 1.

“I spoke to you about it four years ago, for you to prepare yourselves for it. Now you are in it. Divorce is on the lips of everyone... They also publish articles against the Church and against priests. Yet, my children, remember that marriage cannot be dissolved. It is not the Church that decided this but my Son Jesus,” the Virgin Mary was quoted as saying in an online video produced by devotees.

“In her messages, the Lady has been mentioning the issue of divorce for a long time and insisting we pray for the unity of the family and against anything that destroys this unity,” Paul Licari, one of the organisers of the vigil, said.

He said that, at first, the organisers would choose the date of the rosary chain “by linking it to a Marian feast and take intentions out of her messages. More recently, she has been giving us both dates and intentions,” Mr Licari said.

“Locally, a few hundred turn up during the rosary chain. We know that many link up with us spiritually both in Malta and abroad.”

The rosary chain started in October last year, which is marked as the month of the rosary for Catholics.