The feast of St Ursula, patron saint of Gozo, is being celebrated at the cathedral in Victoria this weekend.

The cathedral chapter will sing the first vespers of martyrs on Saturday at 6pm. The chapter will chant the morning prayers on Sunday at 7.30am, followed by a concelebrated pontifical mass, led by Bishop Anton Teuma, at 8am. After mass, there will be a short procession with the relic of St Ursula around the cathedral. Sung vespers will be held at 5pm, followed by Eucharistic benediction.

Governor of Gozo Eugenio-Ramirez Maldonado’s term came to an end in August 1614. Hailing from Salamanca, in the region of Castille and León, his noble family was one of the patrons of the church of St Ursula run by the Capuchin friars in that city. When Maldonado was appointed governor in 1610, he brought with him a bust-relic of St Ursula from Salamanca.

On its feast day, October 21, he used to put it on display at the entrance of his house, next to the matrice (mother church) and embellish it with flowers and candles. Before he left Gozo, after a petition by the Gozitans and priests, he donated the relic to the matrice, now the cathedral.

In 1620, six years later, a diocesan synod presided over by Bishop Baldassare Cagliares at the Mdina cathedral, declared St Ursula patron saint of Gozo. Devotion to the saint grew fast and in 1716 the new cathedral was dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady and St Ursula.

St Ursula is reputed to be a missionary princess from Roman Britannia who, imbued with the love of Christ, joined a peregrinatio pro Christo to help in the evangelisation of northern Europe. She was martyred by the Huns near Cologne, Germany, where her shrine is found to this day.

Since ancient times, the Gozitans invoked the saint’s intercession against natural catastrophe, earthquakes, cholera and plague epidemics, as well as during long periods of droughts. Penitential processions with the relic of the saint were held along the streets of Victoria.