Saturday is a Day of Thanksgiving in Gozo – it marks when on September 16, 1864, 159 years ago,  Blessed Pope Pius IX brought to a happy end the 66-year long attempt of the people of Gozo to establish their island as a diocese.

It has been celebrated every year since 1865 but it was the late Bishop Nikol Cauchi, who, in 1981, marked the anniversary as a day of thanksgiving and had a special anniversary mass included in the Maltese missal.

A concelebrated mass of thanksgiving will be led by Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma at the Cathedral in Victoria today at 6.30am. Mgr Teuma will also intone the Te Deum and the bell of the churches of Victoria and of Gozo will be rung in unison with the cathedral bells.

Soon after the liberation of Gozo from the French, who had ransacked several churches of Gozo, archpriest Saverio Cassar, who had led the insurrection, petitioned the establishment of the diocese for the first time.

Due to the upheavals brought about by the Napoleaonic Wars, this petition fell on deaf ears and was shelved for many years afterwards.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.