John Azzopardi wrote about his “many” imaginary “friends in heaven” (November 20).

None of these ‘heavenly friends’ saved the hundreds of worshippers who perished on All Saints’ Day in 1755, when a catastrophic earthquake devastated Lisbon. The earthquake began at 9.30am. Within 10 minutes, 30 churches and 20,000 other buildings were destroyed and thousands of people were killed or were fatally injured.

Many people in Europe were deeply shocked and their faith was shaken when they learnt that the catastrophe had occurred on All Saints’ Day and at such an hour ‒ when nearly all pious citizens were attending Mass.