This information was contributed by Mr. Gregory Gauci 

Gregory Gauci was born in Poala and lives in Vittoriosa. He is married and has two grown-up daughters. He spent his boyhood in Tarxien where he received his primary education and later at De La Salle College, Vittoriosa for his secondary education. His occupation was an Aircraft Technician with the RAF where he spent some years overseas. He is now retired and enjoys bird keeping as a main hobby.

Gregory Gauci has also acquired great interest in History and music.  He is a helper in St Lawrence church as a Church Warden and Guide helping tourists, students and other visitors.  He published a number of books about Vittoriosa and its history and about St Lawrence church.  His books can be found for sale from leading Bookshops and also from St Lawrence church.

The parish of Birgu was the first parish erected in the Maltese islands together with that of Mdina, the old capital city. Birgu was the first maritime town and its primitive church San Lorenzo-a-mare was built by Spanish seafarers with the help of Spanish kings. Its destiny was bound with those of our islands for many centuries.

St Lawrence Collegiate church

The Good Friday procession in Birgu used to take part before 1749/50; this procession was not complete with the statues as we know it today.  Since 1975 this procession in Birgu has taken a form of a pageant with the traditional unique statues including personages dressed in robes of biblical characters of both Testaments.  Very recently in 1999 even women took part on show with these beautiful robes in the procession.  The earlier statues that were brought from Spain were the responsibility of Maltese seafarers after seeing Good Friday processions in Barcellona Spain with statues dressed in real attire in a Spanish style.  They were so impressed with the statues that they brought over some like them to Malta in Birgu. The Good Friday procession is a liturgical activity to commemorate the Passion and Death of Our lord Jesus Christ, this solemn and mourning event changes to a real joy on the Resurrection of Christ because Easter is the climax of this great event. 

The silver plinth and the artistic walnut base which are of great artistic value were also made in 1903.  The plinth is adorned with four silver statuettes by Abram Gatt of Cospicua, these represent the four virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity and Purity.  On the  four sides of the plinth there are the coat-of-arms of the four parishes in Cottonera thus, Vittoriosa in front, Cospicua and Senglea on each side and Kalkara at the back.  The plinth was made in Milan by the firm Ghezzi and cost the sum of 585 sterling.  It was designed by Alfonse Maria pace, it weighs 64 Kg.

The Statue

The present statue was made in Gozo, made of 'papier mache' by Michael Camilleri Cauchi and was inaugurated in the feast of St Dominic in 1986.  This statue was the fourth one made for this church that belongs to the Dominican community.  

The Grandmaster responsible during the four months of the Great Siege was La Vallette who was regarded as the hero of this Great Siege.  He was born in 1495 and when he was only 20 he joined the Order of St John.  He took part in the Siege of Rhodes in 1522 when he lost his galley named San Giovanni and was captured as a galley slave rowing but released after a few months.  In 1557 he was elected Grandmaster, and in such a position he distinguished himself during the time of blood, sweat and tears in the Great Siege.  He founded our new capital city Valletta in 1566 and died at the age of 73 in 1568.

 In the Holy Land the Knights built splendid large palaces and castles with ring upon ring of defenses by means of pushing the art of medieval castle and palace building to one of its high points.  Years later in the island of Rhodes they built a formidable circuit of curtain walls and bastions when sloping parapets were also used to deflect shots by intruders.  The famous obstacles in the middle of ditches with armed gun platforms including the design forming a tenaille (tongs) or even serrated forms of walled defense so that they, being the defenders of their base and belongings and the city could be very effective when firing across paths of any attacks on their defensive walls and bastions.

Melchiorre or Melchiore was the son of Marco and Veronica, his brother Lorenzo Gafa` was the famous Baroque architect who built the present Parish church of St Lawrence including many other building.  The 17th century witnessed a sudden jump in quality of sculpture with the art of the very talented Melchiorre Gafa`.  After an apprenticeship with Ercole Ferrata he established his studio in Rome.  In the course of his very brief career he became one of the top Baroque sculptors not only in Malta but of the Roman school.  His masterpiece in Malta is the wooden statue of St Paul for the Collegiate church of St Paul in Valletta, this statue is signed by him.  His statue of St Joseph with the child Jesus made in a Spanish touch with real clothes to blend with the Good Friday statues in this parish, is held in Birgu at the Church Museum.

Lorenzo Gafa` was one of the greatest Baroque architects like Mederico Blondel, Romano Carapecchia and Francesco Buonamici, they were the principal Baroque architects in Malta.  That period was the first one in history of Maltese architecture.  The Baroque era of churches and palaces started by Gafa` was a testimony of rich architecture carried out by the Order of St John during their occupation in Malta from 1530 to 1798. Lorenzo had always maintained his residence in Birgu but there is no evidence that he ever went abroad, and according to Bonello he was in Rome between 1699 and 1700 and was then involved in the work on the Niccione of San Giovanni in Laterano, the official seat of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.  We do not even know where is the house of his birth.  His famous architecture is more Baroque than that of any architect in Malta before his time.  He started his career as a stone carver and in 1671 he was still describing himself as a sculptor, in fact as a scalpellino Lorenzo was known to have been involved in the choir of St Philip’s church in Zebbug in 1661.  As a great “capomastro” he is known to have been involved in the structure of St Paul’s church in Rabat in 1664, in St Paul’s Valletta in 1666, Sarria church Floriana in 1676, in the Carmelite church at Mdina in 1668, in St Rocco Valletta in 1680 and in 1679 he had designed  the Cathedral of Mdina.  In 1682 he was paid for designing the Bishop’s Palace in Mdina.

English Knights of noble birth vied to become members of the Order of St John that was a monastic institution; they figured prominently in the early history of the Knights.  One of the English Knights, Sir Richard Salford, was a representative of the Knights who had visited Malta and recommended that the island of Malta should be the permanent base of the Knights of St John after their greatest loss of the island of Rhodes in 1522.  During this transitional period when the Knights wanted to find a permanent home as a base, Grandmaster L’Isle Adam even travelled to England asking King Henry VIII for the possibility of a base, but this request was unsuccessful.  History recalls that nobody in Europe wanted this religious institution to have a base in their country after losing the island of Rhodes.

“The Castrum Maris or Castle-by-the Sea, as the Castle of St. Angelo was known for most of the later Middle Ages, was the main reason for the existence and survival of its suburb of Birgu.”  So Prof. Godfrey Wittinger of the University of Malta opens one of the chapters in Birgu – A Maltese Maritime City, two volumes indispensable for the understanding of the history and heritage of this town.

Grand Masters used to reign over Malta from Vittoriosa but on Sunday 27th April 2003, the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Fra Andrew Bertie was granted the honorary citizenship of Birgu (Citta Vittoriosa).

On the 4th day of April 1942, an interesting and beautiful historic and ancient Tower (vedette), that was housing a clock in its top storey, eventually one of the oldest clocks in Malta was destroyed by World War II enemy action.  This tower was built in the centre of the main square in Birgu known today as Victory Square since the Great Siege of 1565.  It rose higher than all the houses and other buildings, and it offered a complete view of the Grand Harbour, the entrance of the Harbour including the Break-water, both forts, i.e. Fort St Elmo and Fort Ricasoli and a complete view of the Birgu perimeter.  When this Clock Tower was destroyed, Birgu lost another treasure. So far no Maltese Government has taken the initiative to re-build it. Such restoration was something that happened in other European countries where several monuments that had been destroyed were re-built after the said war.