Sannat is celebrating the feast of its patron saint, Margaret of Antioch, over the weekend.
Bishop Anton Teuma will lead a concelebrated Mass on Sunday at 9am. He will also deliver the homily. The Missa in Honorem S. Margaritae by Charles Camilleri will be performed, under the direction of Joseph Debrincat.
Can. John Muscat will lead vespers at 6.30pm, with the participation of the orchestra and singing of the antiphon. The hymn, Innu l-Kbir ad Unur ta’ Santa Margerita, will be performed with the participation of soprano Georgina Gauci and the Ulied Margerita choir.
The procession with the statue of the saint, led by Can. Muscat, will leave the parish church at 7.45pm, accompanied by the Santa Margerita Band, under the direction of George Apap. The La Stella Band and Ite ad Joseph bands will perform a concert at St Margerita Square. Festivities will end with a band march by the Ite ad Joseph band at 10.30pm.
On Saturday, eve of the feast, the translation of the relic will take place at 6.30pm from the Eucharistic chapel to the parish church. It will be led by Gozo diocese vicar general Mgr Tarċisio Camilleri and accompanied by the St Margerita Band. There will be aerial fireworks synchronised to music at 11pm. Ground fireworks, together with a spectacle of light and synchronised music, will be held at St Margerita Square at 11.45pm.
All church functions will be transmitted live on the parish community radio Radju Margerita, 96.1FM, and also streamed live on www.sannatparish.org.
Devotion to the saint in Gozo goes back to the Middle Ages and a chapel dedicated to her on the site of the present parish church is documented early in the 16th century.
On April 28, 1688, Bishop Davide Cocco-Palmeri dismembered the district of Sannat and Munxar from the cathedral and established them as a separate parish. Dun Lazzru Camilleri, the first parish priest, immediately set himself the task to build a new church that would accommodate the growing population.
The foundation stone of the church was laid in 1718 and it was consecrated on October 16, 1755. After several structural additions in the 1860s, it was consecrated again on November 22, 1868.