Crucifixes that become a cult

The other day in St Paul Street, Valletta, two women asked me to direct them to the "miraculous crucifix" in Our Lady of Jesus church in St John Street.

Why do some crucifixes have miraculous power attributed to them when so many are found in churches and convents around the island?

As chance would have it, the very same day I came to know that Sandro Debono, an official at the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, had just published a monograph precisely on crucifixes called Imago Dei: Sculpted Images Of The Crucifix In The Art Of Early Modern Malta.

In the book, Mr Debono attempts to trace the provenance of a number of the crucifixes most of which have a most intriguing history particularly the one from the Cretan school found in the parish church in Cospicua.

The Cospicua crucifix, that formed part of war salvage, was brought over from Candia in Crete by Maltese sailors in the late 1650s.

"The Candia crucifix should be preserved in a better way than it is now, taking into account its historic and cultural reference," Mr Debono said.

Usually a crucifix initially forms part of the church ritual. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries the crucifix formed part of the main altar. "In time, some of them develop into a cult and are moved to side chapels. In a cult one is expecting something back, that is, answered prayers, a granting of grace or graces.

"In Imago Dei, the connection between realism and cult is highlighted. The greater the realism that the sculptor manages to imbue the crucifix with, the greater the chances of the faithful identifying with it and the bigger the chances of the development of a cult," Mr Debono explained.

The more a cult becomes stronger the more stories are dispersed of what the faithful believe are miraculous interventions.

The crucifixes have to be seen in the economic, cultural and social contexts prevailing at the time they were made. In this sense, the realism of the 17th century eventually gave way to the Roman Baroque.

In a preface to the book, Anthony Pace, Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, writes that virtually at the same time as the historic developments there emerged a popular attachment to the physical manifestations of the crucifix itself.

"The symbol became a work of art, often to be treasured equally by the highest echelons of the nobility, the Church or the communities that rallied around the parishes in which the crucifix would have normally come to reside.

"Often, the works that embodied the spiritual significance of the Christian crucifix assumed a life of their own, becoming at once sacred and mundane".

The book is published by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and was designed and printed by PEG Ltd. It is on sale in bookshops, in parishes and from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage in Melita Street, Valletta.