Despite the funeral of Fra Matthew Festing last week being a solemn occasion, the burial of the 79th grand master of the Knights of St John also closed the book on the mystery of the final resting place of one of Malta’s most unpopular grand masters.
Francisco Ximénez de Texada, who served as grand master of the Order between 1773 and 1775, had long been suspected to be buried in the crypt of St John’s Co-Cathedral, like every other grand master who died in Malta has been. However, Ximénez’s burial site was not marked, nor are there any funerary monuments dedicated to him in the crypt.
But as the crypt was being prepared to inter Festing, new insights into the previous burials carried out there were uncovered and documented, curator Cynthia de Giorgio said in a new research paper on the discovery.
“Ximénez is listed in the register of deaths as having died on 9 November 1775. His is a strange case as he is the only Grand Master of the Order to have died in Malta and does not have a proper funerary monument either in the Grand Master’s crypt or in the nave of the Church,” de Giorgio said. The register notes indicate that Ximénez died at age 72 after succumbing to pulmonic fever. His body was displayed at the palace for 10 days and, on the 11th day, a procession was held and he was buried in the chapel of the Holy Cross, another name for the crypt of the grand masters, following funeral Mass. While there is no mark on the grave, a watercolour by Charles Frederick de Brocktorff, painted in the 1840s, shows that one of the pavement stones in front of Grand Master Jean de La Cassiere’s monument did contain an inscription marking the grave.
“The reason, however, as to why Ximénez de Texada was never given a proper tombstone remains unclear and highly out of character, especially since by this period it was customary for the Grand Masters of the Order to erect an elaborate monument within the chapels of the conventual church,” di Giorgio said.
“But as a result of the recent excavations, a coffin made from lead and that was once covered with wood was uncovered and we can now be certain that Ximénez was laid in the crypt and never moved. The position of the tomb can now also be confirmed.”
According to a document by Visconte de Villeneuve Bargemont, Ximénez was described as an “excessively haughty” person who introduced harsh measures that alienated him from his peers as well as the Maltese.
“None were attached to him for his ingratitude and even contempt for the services they rendered to him,” de Giorgio writes.
“This was the fate of this Grand Master, to rest in peace in an unmarked tomb.”
Historical accounts detail Ximénez’s tenure as grand master as one marked by austerity and economic hardship.
Increasing the price of corn and banning hare hunting made him deeply unpopular with both the people and the clergy and gave way to a revolt known as the Rising of the Priests, or Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin, in 1775.