A group of men from Marsaxlokk had carried an effigy of Our Lady of Pompei all the way from Grand Harbour to their fishing village to the south of the island and 108 years later it still holds pride of place in the hearts of the Xlukkajri as their titular statue.
Costing about £80 and made of papier mâché by Giuseppe Malecore (1876-1967) of Lecce, the town which is renowned worldwide for this type of artistic skill, the statue has just been restored by Pierre Bugeja, managing director of PrevARTI.
It took Mr Bugeja, a conservator-restorer of paintings and polychrome sculptures, three months to do the job, which was commissioned by parish priest Fr VicGeorge Vassallo after Mr Bugeja was appointed by the Curia from among a number of applicants.
"Restoration does not mean scrapping all the paint and gilding and starting anew.
"In going about such a task, one has to respect the original as much as possible and not obliterate what the original artist had come up with. It's a pity that statues are often renovated and not conserved or restored.
"It is so important to preserve such heritage... Where the gold leaf was missing, re-gilding was necessary to compensate for the losses," Mr Bugeja explained.
The papier mâché craftsmen of Lecce applied what is called focacciatura by means of a heated iron to refine the modelling. Through this technique, the paper is literally burnt, turning the surface black and the paper becoming as hard as rock.
The whole process seems simple enough. First a skeletal shape is made of wood and is filled in with straw and hemp to build the form. Wet paper mixed with glue and turned into a pulp is applied in layers of various thicknesses.
The statue of Our Lady of Pompei, which was finished in plaster and painted was gilded by Lorenzo Gatt of Vittoriosa in 1931.
"Cleaning the statue of a layer of shellac (a natural protective coating) was a challenging and rewarding process at the same time. It is a time-consuming process while making sure nothing of the original is altered or lost. The rewarding part occurred during the cleaning process when, from under the dark brown layer, a deep blue colour came to light.
"During the conservation treatments, I found out that the Madonna's veil was originally decorated in oil gilding in a much simpler design than was done by Lorenzo Gatt. The current finish was done in water gilding technique," Mr Bugeja said.
Although the layer of shellac helped to preserve the statue, in time it would have continued to darken so much as to turn the faces and limbs black. In fact, the figure of St Dominic is known as San Duminku l-Iswed, the black St Dominic.
The veil of the Madonna and the dress of baby Jesus turned out to be white once the shellac was removed. Leaving the shellac on for more years would have required an aggressive solvent to remove it.
The main damage was caused by the vibrations caused when the statue is taken round the village during the feast, causing cracks in the plaster.
Another source of damage was the weight of gold jewellery the Madonna and child wore. The gold items were donated by members of the parish as a sign of devotion and as thanks for graces received.
The titular feast is held on August 2.