The Gozo cathedral is exhibiting recent acquisitions for its museum and other items in the niche of Santa Marija.

The titular statue is currently on display in the cathedral for the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady being celebrated on August 15.

Most of the items on display are related to the 400th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Gozo cathedral chapter. Prominently displayed at the centre is the original edict of the chapter’s foundation issued by the Bishop of Malta and Gozo, Baldassare Cagliares, on June 6, 1623. It is flanked by an enlarged version of its six folios and a portrait of Bishop Cagliares.

Of interest is also an enlarged contemporary painting of the medieval Matrice church and of the new fortifications of the Citadel in 1622.

Also displayed are two papal bulls related to the cathedral chapter ‒ the granting of the use of the eight-pointed pectoral cross by Pope Pius VI in 1781 and the use of the mitre by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.

Prelatic vestments used by the canons (pictured, above right) and the cappa magna (above left), a mantle with a hood of ermine used only once a year during the Good Friday procession, are also exhibited.

Recent acquisitions by the museum are a silver chalice belonging to the late Mgr Joseph Gauci, who served as a sacristan at the cathedral since 1967 and two late 18th/early 19th- century reliquaries with relics of martyrs embedded in painted petals surrounding a pierced heart.