For the first time in over five centuries, part of Mdina’s Monastery of St Peter has opened its doors to the public to “keep it alive”, as a trend to make religious homes more accessible takes root.

A wing of Malta’s oldest female monastery, accessible through a side door on Triq Villegaignon, has been transformed into a museum displaying its special heritage, showcasing what has, to date, been hidden from view.

“In my vast experience as a religious nun, coming and going to Rome for reunions and retreats, I saw that all monasteries, male and female, have museums displaying wonderful works of art. It is time we wake up,” said the Mother Abbess Sr Maria Adeodata dei Marchesi Testaferrata De Noto.

“We are lucky because we have a wing and so we are not violating the cloister, which is sacred,” she said.

Three years ago, the Mother Abbess of the Benedictine cloister decided it was time to open up part of the monastery, so people could “appreciate the beautiful things that occurred in the past”.

Domestic items – including tools for making shoes – that were once used by the nuns in their everyday lives are now on show, as well as artefacts of ecclesiastical, cultural, spiritual and artistic significance.

Since 2020, the nuns have been taking these old items out of storage, cleaning and putting them on display.

Mdina’s Monastery of St Peter is accessible through a side door on Triq Villegaignon.

According to the rules of St Benedict, the Catholic monastery had to be self-sufficient, and everything produced inhouse by the cloistered nuns to sustain their day-to-day lives, the Mother Abbess explained.

This included anything from shoes to carpets and tapestry, orange-blossom water, carob syrup, marmalade, as well as a typical Benedictine drink made with almond essence and Benedictine sweets.

Visitors will now also be able to enjoy biskuttini made by the nuns, after Sr Maria Adeodata found the old recipes – even for biscuits for diabetics.

“I have tried making them, and they are wonderful,” she said about plans to sell them to visitors in her quest to revive old traditions.

The project that lasted three years has served to showcase paintings, as well as a one-of-a-kind organ in Malta.

Domestic items – including tools for making shoes – that were once used by the nuns in their everyday lives are now on show.

Many of the Benedictine cloistered nuns of Mdina, of noble origin, are buried in the crypt of the monastery that was bought with their dowries and belongs to them.

Visitors also have access to the rooms of the Blessed Maria Adeodata Pisani, who lived in the holy place for 27 years and died in 1855 at 48.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in May 2001 and the Benedictine nuns are now “waiting for a miracle for her to be canonised”.

“The Beata was granting many graces,” she said, encouraging visitors to pray in her cell.

We have enough angels to keep this holy place going with prayers- Sr Maria Adeodata, Mother Abbess of the Benedictine cloister

“We too are praying for a miracle so that the Church may proclaim her saint,” she said.

A Maltese translation of the litany dictated by Our Lady on November 6,1700, when she is said to have appeared to one of the nuns in the choir while praying, is also now on display.

The original Latin version is held in the monastery’s “precious” archives and has been recited by the nuns every Wednesday and Saturday.

Prof. Petra Caruana Dingli, who is currently researching and writing about the little-known history of St Peter’s Monastery, said the doors to secluded monastic life would now be opened.

Visitors also have access to the rooms of the Blessed Maria Adeodata Pisani, who lived in the place for 27 years and died in 1855 aged 48.

The Augustinian St Catherine’s Monastery in Valletta has also gone down the same route, while other initiatives were being taken to show life inside monasteries, their history and hidden art, the academic said about the trend.

“People can get to know the importance of these religious homes, with a focus on their cultural, and not just artistic, significance.”

St Peter’s Monastery still functions on the same site where it was founded in 1455 by Pope Callixtus III.

“For more than five centuries, devout women have dedicated their lives to work and pray as cloistered nuns within the walls of this special place in Malta’s ancient citadel,” Caruana Dingli said.

By the 18th century, the nuns had bought the adjacent gardens and houses, and rebuilt the monastery, adapting and converting it within the large site that it now occupies.

Asked whether the cloistered community had shrunk in number with time, Sr Maria Adeodata simply said: “We have enough angels to keep this holy place going with prayers, with work and most of all with the love of God and our neighbour”.

The monastery museum, now no longer secluded from the outside world, is open from Monday to Saturday between 9am and 5pm.

Artefacts of ecclesiastical, cultural and spiritual significance.

Domestic items, including pottery.

More artistic treasures

The nuns have been taking these old items out of storage, cleaning and putting them on display.

Items which were used in the past will be on show.

The museum will showcase special heritage items.

Visitors will be able to appreciate old items of interest used in the past.

Visitors can admire the artistic beauty within the monastery.