The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be celebrated at Ta’ Ħamet church on Monday, July 17. 

The church rector, Mgr Carmelo Hili, will celebrate Mass at 6am. There will be adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 5.30 to 7.30pm, followed by a concelebrated Mass, led by Gozo diocese vicar general Mgr Tarċisio Camilleri, and a pilgrimage with the statue of Our Lady.

Ta’ Ħamet is on the very outskirts of Victoria, between the villages of Xewkija and Xagħra. In the midst of the fields, there is a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.

The chapel, situated on a junction on the road from Victoria to the Xagħra and Nadur roads, was built through the interest and devotion of 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 chapel 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 chapel, one finds also a statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, blessed and crowned by Pope Pius XII in 1950. 

The interior of the chapel decorated for the feast of Our Lady, featuring the altarpiece by Tommaso Madiona.