Victoria cathedral invokes St Ursula’s intercession

The Cathedral authorities in Victoria has placed the bust of Saint Ursula, patron of Gozo, upon the main altar of the Cathedral, to invoke her intercession against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Devotion to the saint in Gozo began in 1614, when Eugenio-Romirez Maldonado, a Knight from Salamanca and Governor of Gozo, donated a bust of the saint with her arm-bone to the Matrice, currently the Victoria Cathedral. On September 6, 1620, Saint Ursula was declared patron saint of Gozo.

Throughout the centuries, three votive processions, in which the civil authorities also took part, were held throughout the year in thanksgiving for deliverance from calamities.

On February 18, 1814, a bubonic plague broke out in Xagħra. Communications between Gozo and Malta were cut off and the military were sent to Gozo to form a double cordon around Xagħra to avoid people spilling out. Trespassers risked being gunned down by snippers.

On that occasion, the bust of St Ursula was taken out of the church to the gardjola or watch-tower upon St John Demi-Bastion inside the Ċittadella and raised on a plinth facing the plague-striken village so that villagers could invoke the intercession of Saint Ursula from their homes.

Special prayers are being said in front of the saint twice daily, at 8am and at 6pm. Everyone is being urged to join in prayers to Saint Ursula online on www.radjukatidral.com