The feast of St Martha will be celebrated at Tal-Għonq chapel, Victoria, on Friday. Mass will be said at 9 and 11am and at 5pm. The rosary will be recited at 6.30pm.
Mgr Joseph Zammit will celebrate Mass at 7pm. An evening of entertainment on the church parvis starts at 8.30pm.
The statue of Santa Marta, by Albert Micallef, of Marsaxlokk, was commissioned by the then rector of the chapel, Canon Joseph Borg Bugeja. It was blessed by Bishop Nikol Cauchi at St George’s basilica in Victoria on July 27, 1988.
The chapel was built in 1866 by the merchant Felice Attard and his wife Rosina (née Bajada) as an ex-voto for their deliverance from cholera. The main altarpiece was painted by Pawlu Cuschieri in 1867 and shows St Martha praying for the souls in purgatory.
The chapel stands in front of a cemetery called Tal-Infetti where people who died from cholera were buried.