The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is being celebrated at Ta’ Ħamet church, in the limits of Xagħra, tomorrow, July 16.
Mass will be said at 6am by the rector, Mgr Carmel Hili, while adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be held between 5.30 and 7.30pm. Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma will lead a concelebrated mass at 7.30pm, followed by the procession with the statue of Our Lady.
Today, eve of the feast, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, including meditated rosary, will be held between 6 and 7pm. Mass with homily by Mgr Rużar Borg will be celebrated at 7pm.
Ta’ Ħamet church, situated on a junction on the road from Victoria to the Xagħra and Nadur roads, was built by Liberato Grech, a prosperous farmer living in the vicinity. It was blessed by his son, Canon Saverio Grech, on January 1, 1837, and consecrated on July 26, 1952.
The church was restored and a new vestry and a large hall has been attached to its south side in 1991.
The altarpiece, by Tommaso Madiona (1804-1864), depicts the Virgin Mary and the Child surrounded by a profusion of putti. A scapular is suspended from their hands.
In the foreground, the painting features a Gozitan landscape including the original chapel of Ta’ Ħamet.
In the church one also finds a statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, blessed and crowned by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
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