Archbishop Charles Scicluna has in recent years been instrumental in ensuring that Casa Manresa, which today houses the Curia, undergoes extensive refurbishment and maintenance works in recent years. The public this weekend has the opportunity to see for itself the work carried out as the Curia opens itsdoors to the public. Michael Pace Ross and Fr Nicholas Doublet trace the history of the imposing building in Floriana.

Casa Manresa in Floriana was completed in 1751, and opened in 1753 by Fr Pier Francesco Rosignoli, a Jesuit priest born in Novara. It was shut down in 1768 after the expulsion of the Jesuits, subsequently falling in the hands of the Diocese of Malta. The inauguration ceremony dedicating the place to Our Lady of Manresa took place on March 16, 1771. The chapel, housing the relics of St Calcedonius, was consecrated by Bishop Labini on July 23, 1786. When the Jesuits returned in 1860, they occupied the building till 1918. Between 1860 and 1867, the Provincial Curia of the Sicilian Province was domiciled at Casa Manresa. From 1858 to 1910 and again from 1921 till 1977 the diocesan seminary was housed here. It is presently occupied by the Archbishop’s Curia.

What inspired the construction of the retreat house?

Building commenced in 1743 on land bought from proceeds accrued from the sale of a house that Balì Fra Giovanni Battista Spinola had bequeathed to the Jesuits for use as a retreat house by the clergy and laity. The edifice reflected the architectural tendencies of the time when the baroque style had reached its peak and had developed into the rococo style. The sculpture gracing the façade is that of the patroness of Casa Manresa: the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus, and a verse from Psalm 33: Venite filii audite me (Come, my children, listen to me). Mary is flanked by the figures of St John the Baptist and St Paul, the patron saints of Malta and the Order of St John.

In Christian eschatology, the Four Last Things (Quattuor Novissima) – death, judgement, heaven and hell, or the art of a good death, is what inspired the Jesuits to build the retreat house. One can understand this concept only by considering the traditional mentality that can be traced from the Middle Ages to modern times within the perspective when life was short, brutal and death more a tangible and visible reality.

The founders of this house immediately embarked on their pastoral work by ministering to the sick and the dying, taking the words of the Gospel: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36) as their mission statement, thus following the teaching found in St Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises where he exhorts his companions to contemplate life from the perspective of the deathbed.

The elegant and baroque city of Valletta, a metropolis teeming with knights and the people they attracted, only lay a mere kilometre away and so the Jesuits felt the need to provide, in an unpopulated area in Floriana, a perfect place for people to meditate about issues that really mattered. They wanted to provide an ideal place where people from all strata of society, irrespective of class and means, could withdraw from the temporal, hedonistic world of nearby Valletta. With this in mind, the founder, Fr Pier Francesco Rosignoli (1690-1775), wanted this mission to be clearly depicted in the iconography of Casa Manresa. 

One of the side corridors at the Archbishop’s Curia

The chapel

The chapel was built in 1749 as can be observed on the escutcheon embellishing the entrance. Its design is attributed to architect Andrea Belli (1703-1772). Pietro Infante of Portugal, Grand Prior of Crato, was responsible for funding its construction. The chapel was dedicated to Our Lady of Manresa by Fr Rosignoli, thus commemorating the event when St Ignatius experienced visions of the Blessed Virgin during his spiritual retreat in 1522-23 in a grotto at Manresa in Spain, where he also wrote a great part of his Spiritual Exercises.

They wanted to provide a place where all people could withdraw from the hedonistic world to meditate

The chapel is designed on an oval plan, having the main altar recessed beyond the oval outline. The recessed altar interrupts the entablature and is enhanced with an arch above this entablature. For the plan of this chapel, the architect was probably influenced by Francesco de Volterra’s chapel of San Giacomo degli Incurabili, in Rome. The fluidity of the decoration and scenographic treatment of the main altar recalls the work of Cosmas Damian Assam’s church at the Abbey in Weltenburg, Bavaria, and other chapels of the 18th century in the regions of Austria and Bavaria.

The titular painting points to the purpose behind the building of this house, for it depicts St Ignatius writing his Spiritual Exercises under the maternal gaze of Mary. The French painter Antoine Favray (1706-1798) was then commissioned to continue the cycle of paintings adorning the chapel, as a pictorial reminder to the pilgrims of the purpose of their sojourn in this building.

Favray started to work on his paintings in 1748. The entire chapel is a catechesis on living a worthy life and dying a holy death. One painting depicts the patron saints of the Order of St John and Malta who both experienced the desert in preparation for their ministry in the service of the Kingdom of God. The cycle continues with a painting of St Joseph on his deathbed. This is the perfect iconography of a good death as the dying saint is accompanied by Jesus and Mary.

Another painting portrays the death of St Francis Xavier, one of the greatest missionaries of the Church, who was a contemporary of St Ignatius. The cycle comes to an end with the painting of the soul being lifted out of purgatory. Lastly, two paintings of St Ignatius, on his sickbed and giving away his possessions, served as didactic tools to imitate the saint, and embrace the ideals of Christian charity.

To complete their undertaking, the Jesuits brought over from Rome the holy remains of a Christian martyr. The remains of St Calcedonius arrived at the chapel from the cemetery of Pretastato, Italy, on May 20, 1753, as a gift from Pope Benedict XIV which had been requested by Fr Rosignoli, who left Malta that very same year. The cult to this martyr eventually became so ingrained in the fabric of the house that St Calcedonius is the name by which the place became popularly known.

Decree signed by Napoleon Bonaparte entrusting the Conventual Church of St John to the use of the Bishop of Malta.

The refectory

This hall reflects the reform in the Catholic Church prompted by the Jesuits as an answer to the Protestant heresy that had taken hold in northern Europe. In subsequent years, the Catholic Church experienced a period of prosperity that is perfectly illustrated in the art of the time which has been described as the sacred theatre of baroque. The paintings located in the refectory are among the best examples of mural art among the decorated places found on the island. These paintings were commissioned in 1762, and executed by a Sicilian painter, Pasquale Leonetti, who left his signature on the ceiling.

The murals in the refectory portray biblical episodes where food is mentioned, and each painting is accompanied by the Scriptural quote that inspired it. This cycle reaches its pinnacle with the scene of the arrival of St Paul on Malta as he is welcomed by Publius, and by the Triumph of the Lamb of God on the opposite side of the hall.

The French and British periods

In 1798, Casa Manresa was taken over by the French. It was commandeered as barracks for 600 troops during the French occupation. The French were replaced by troops from the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily when the British entered Floriana on September 4, 1800. Casa Manresa remained in the hands of the military as there were no other suitable quarters in Floriana. In 1802, Casa Manresa was repaired and restored to the clergy. The outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in May 1803, however, halted the evacuation of the garrison.

In July 1805, Lt General Sir James Craig entered Valletta with over 6,000 troops. This so increased the demand for accommodation, that all available large premises were utilised as billets. Casa Manresa fell once again into military hands.

In 1813, Casa Manresa was used as a military plague hospital since no other alternative building was found. Off and on the house was used by the military. The last battalion left Casa Manresa in 1853 and it was handed back to the Civil Government.

In 1858, Bishop Gaetano Pace Forno moved the Major Seminary from Mdina to Casa Manresa, where it remained for the greater part of the 20th century. During World War II the building was damaged and later restored and modernised.

Once the Seminary moved to Tal-Virtù in 1977, the Curial administration of the Archdiocese of Malta moved to this building from the Archbishop’s Palace in Valletta, where it has remained ever since.

All throughout its chequered history, Casa Manresa has remained, in one way or another, faithful to the ethos willed by the founders of this house – a sanctuary that welcomes anyone in need of solace with open arms irrespective of class and means. In nearly three centuries, multitudes walked over the threshold of this building in search of spiritual or physical respite, or both. With the present occupation of the building of the Archbishop’s Curia, which is the nerve centre of the Church in Malta for all her social and charitable action with people in need, Casa Manresa has truly come full circle.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna was instrumental in ensuring that Casa Manresa undergoes extensive refurbishment and maintenance works in recent years. 

The Archbishop’s Curia in Floriana will be open to the public on Saturday  between 5 and 9 and on Sunday from 9am to 1pm, the eve of the feast of St Calcedonius. Mass will be celebrated on Saturday at 7pm and on Sunday at 10am. More details are available on www.church.mt

Michael Pace Ross is the administrative secretary of the Archdiocese of Malta. Rev. Dr Nicholas Joseph Doublet is the diocesan archivist.

Dome of the chapel of Our Lady of Manresa