The Gozo cathedral (church of Santa Maria within the Citadel) has been served by a chapter or body of canons since medieval times.

A clear and unequivocal reference to the existence of the collegiata is first met within a papal document of 1463. However, its establishment goes back much earlier, possibly to the times when it was the seat of the Bishopric of Gozo and Malta between 1127 and 1249, when the majority of Christians on the Maltese islands were concentrated in Gozo.

The medieval collegiata functioned until July 1551, when the Ottomans laid siege on the fortified citadel, defeated the defenders and dragged the whole population of 5,000, including the majority of the clergy, into slavery.

Four hundred years ago, on June 6, 1623, Bishop Baldassare Cagliares issued the Edictum pro Erectione Collegiatae in Matrici Ecclesia Gaudisii re-establishing a collegiate chapter at the cathedral.

Through the bull Superna Dispositione of October 20, 1663, Pope Alexander VII granted his formal approval to the collegiata. Pope Blessed Pius IX, through the bull Singulari Amore of September 16, 1864, dismembered Gozo and Comino from Malta and established them as a separate diocese. The same bull established the matrice as the cathedral of the new diocese and its chapter as the cathedral chapter.

To this day, the chapter meets daily on weekdays and twice on Sundays and Holy Days to chant the Divine Office in choir and fulfil other pastoral duties.

Thanksgiving mass

Today, Tuesday, June 6, Bishop Anton Teuma will lead a concelebrated  thanksgiving mass, together with the chapter, at 7.30am, followed by the singing of the Te Deum.

The chapter has also commissioned a personalised stamp and a special card, both designed by Daniel Cilia, for the occasion. Besides, MaltaPost will today use a special cancellation at the Victoria Post Office, also designed by Cilia.