Today, the Floriana community celebrates the feast of their and Malta’s patron saint, Publius, the first bishop of Malta.

The two rooms – one from the fresco in the Vatican Museum (in colour) which inspired the other (in black) in the engraving in the British Library.

The saint may not enjoy great popularity, but Publius’s name features in the Acts of the Apostles (in Chapter 28, verses 7 and 8) when St Paul – after the shipwreck – stayed for three months in Malta. His is also mentioned in other manuscript texts and depicted in frescos and engravings in the very remote past.

The Vatican Museum in Rome contains the stunning and awe-inspiring rich collection of treasures that Popes amassed during their papacy. Egyptian sarcophagi, Greek and Roman marble statues of all sizes, paintings and frescoes, papal vestments’ furniture, large murals with maps, priceless enormous Flemish tapestries (realised during the pontificate of Clement VII [1523-1534]) depicting biblical and profane episodes, precious colourful ceramic vases and works of art, ceilings with paintings embedded in geometrical sculptured designs, and old decorated and gilded sedans and cabs, and cars used by popes in different times – there was indeed much to see and appreciate.

In the baroque ceiling of the very long hall with walls covered with large maps of Italy on each side, flanked by other frescoes, designs, and embellishments, in a gilded frame there is a scene above which the enlarged wording ‘Pavlvs publi parentem melitae sanat’ (Paul curing Maltese Publius’s parent) may be read.

It is a fresco depicting St Paul ‘healing’ Publius’s dysentery-afflicted father (Acts of the Apostles 28:8). Publius’s father is seen sitting in a luxurious bed, beneath a bed canopy, in a well-kept room, with a window in the wall at the back and a door on the right-hand side overlooking the coast and sea. Publius must be the man kneeling down on his left knee, next to, and looking up at Paul performing the healing. Other people in the room look on. On the right-hand side of the building, in the foreground, people – among them a mother holding a hand of a walking child – are approaching the door to have a better view of the unfolding miracle.

The fresco depicting St Paul healing Publius’ father, the room where the healing took place, the coast nearby, and a ship at bay.

Also on the right, across the coast, stands a building with four columns and a pediment above them, while in the distance there is a ship at bay… perhaps representative for the one on which St Paul and the survivors from the shipwreck (Acts of the Apostles 27: 14-44; 28: 1-11) had to travel to Rome.

While the maps on the walls were painted by Girolamo Muziano (c. 1532-1592), one of the most prominent Mannerist artists active in Rome in the mid-to-late 16th century, the fresco depicting the miracle by St Paul is one of several painted by another prominent Italian Mannerist responsible for the fresco scenes on the ceiling, Cesare Nebbia (1536-1614), executed in 1581-2, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII.

It seems that this is one of the scenes recounting famous miracles which occurred in places found on the maps, while others recount the Christianisation of Italy. It has been interpreted as St Paul ‘converting’ Publius in Malta, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time.

The shipwreck of Paul and the ‘bite’ of a serpent

The wooden statue of St Publius by Vincenzo Dimech (1811)

In the British Library, there is an engraving – another copy of which is found in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. – described as: ‘St Paul bitten by the viper; as St Paul, in the foreground, places a bundle of sticks on to a fire, a snake emerges from the sticks and bites his hand; a group of figures around the fire gesticulate in astonishment; beyond, to the right, a stream of figures come ashore from the shipwreck; in the left background, a death bed scene.’

It is a Dutch-style engraving made by German-born Dutch Hendric Goltzius (1558-1617), after Jan van der Straet (1523-1605), and published by Dutch Philips Galle (c.1580).

In the lower left-hand corner of the print one finds the wording: ‘HGoltzius sculp’, while in the lower left-hand corner, in the margin ‘Iohan.Stradanus inuen. / Philippus Galle excu.’ There are two columns of Latin text, and the biblical reference ‘Acto. 27’ for Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 27.

In the data given about this engraving one should note:

The British Library estimates that the print was made in c. 1580; the artist could have seen the painting in the Vatican in 1590, therefore the printing of the engraving must have taken place after 1590;

The engraving (in the British Library) depicting Paul (being bitten by a viper) and the survivors from the shipwreck around the fire.

The episode of a viper that attacks St Paul’s hand is found in Acts of the Apostles 28:3, not in Chapter 27;

The room in the top left-hand side background is not a ‘death bed scene’. It is the house where Publius’s father was lying sick. It is indisputably similar to, and definitely inspired by the colourful fresco in the ceiling of the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum. The artist who made the engraving was a mannerist and lived in the same period of the mannerist painters who executed the fresco in the ceiling in the Vatican Museum. In fact, in 1590, Goltzius travelled to Italy and must have visited the Vatican.

The room depicted in the engraving and the room in the fresco in the ceiling of the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museum have these very same features:

A white bearded old man lying on a bed; he is Publius’s sick father;

A figure, most probably representing Publius, kneels beside his father’s bed; in the engraving, Publius has a halo over his head;

Over the bed stands a ‘luxurious’ domed bed canopy with an embellishing frill at the top. The bed, in both depictions, is a luxurious one.

The room and furniture in both paintings pertained to a well-being person: Publius was the governor of the island.

Publius mentioned in a 15th century codex

Some 20 years ago, while doing research in the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria of Turin, I came across a codex with information about many islands, which recounted St Paul’s shipwreck episode. In this account, reproduced below, it is stated that St Paul healed Publius’ brother, not father, and Publius is described as the chief of the island.

“In that place the Alexandrine ship carrying the apostle Paul with 76 men on his way to Rome ran aground after having been tossed by storms on the peak of those billows. [… Paul] performed many miracles for those who came together to him, while he warned them that he was not a god, but he was called God’s messenger. He healed especially Publius’ brother who was suffering from fever, stomach haemorrhage, and burning intestinal pain; Publius was the chief of the island.”

Artist Hendric Goltzius, who created the engraving, travelled to Italy in 1590 and must have visited the Vatican Museum.