The feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is being celebrated at St Dominic parish church, Valletta, on Friday. The festivities started yesterday with the inauguration of the restored apse painting representing the crowning of the Holy Virgin and the main vault painting that represents Dominican Pope St Pius V beseeching the intercession of the Holy Virgin at the time of the Battle of Lepanto. The works, restored by paintings conservator/director Agatha Grima and her team, are by Giuseppe Calì (1846-1930) and can be found in the transept chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary in the Basilica of Our Lady of Porto Salvo, also known as the Church of St Dominic. 

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The conservation project was inaugurated yesterday after the 10am Mass celebrated by parish priest Michael Camilleri, OP.

A new embroidered altar cloth (terħa), designed by Silvio Pace of Qormi and manufactured by Daniela Felisi, of Lucca, Italy, for the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary was also inaugurated. Expenses for the altar cloth and the restored paintings were covered by the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary of the same parish.

Days of triduum will be celebrated tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday with the recitation of the rosary at 5.45pm, followed by Mass. On Friday, the feast day proper, sung vespers will be said at 6pm, followed by a concelebrated Mass, led by Valletta Carmelite prior Alex M. Scerri, O. Carm, together with the Dominican and Carmelite communities. The procession with the statues of Our Lady and St Dominic will leave the church at 7.15pm.

When the procession reaches Old Theatre Street, it will enter the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for a moment of prayer.