Churches of Malta - St John's Co Cathedral
 This was the convent church of the Knights of the Order of St John. It was designed by our Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar between the years 1573 and 1577. The Knights of the Order of St John were essentially a religious order. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Before Valletta was built the Order of St John lived in Vittoriosa and used the parish church of St Lawrence as their convent church. The facade of St John's Co Cathedral is more like a fort as Girolamo Cassar had helped with the planning of Valletta and he always had this thing in mind - defense. But from the inside St John's is a splendid baroque and, quite breath-taking to take in, after the severe exterior. Although the facade is not so impressive it has, albeit, some interesting features. On the right are three clocks - one shows the time, one shows the day of the week and the other shows the date. In the middle is a balcony with balustrades. From this balcony was announced the name of the newly-elected grand-master. It was customary for the grand-master to throw golden coins on the people who were waiting in the square for the news. Under the balcony are three coat of arms. One is of Grand Master La Cassiere, who paid for the building of the Cathedral, one is of Bishop Torres who opened the Cathedral and the third is the coat of arms of religion. The columns on the main door are Tuscan, therefore massive and impressive. The main altar was covered in silver but Napoleon Bonaparte stole the silver. The candlesticks on the main altar and the lamp hanging in front of the main altar are both in solid silver. They were a present from one of the Grand Masters. It was customary that when a new Grand Master was elected he gave an expensive present to the Order. It was not easy to become a Knight of the Order of St John. First of all one had to have nobility for eight generations. Then one had to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The statue, depicting the Baptism of Christ by St John the Baptist behind the altar, was sculptured by the well-known artist Giuseppe Mazzuoli. The interesting fact about this statue is that, although one sees two figures, they are in fact hewn out of one big solid marble block. The vault of St John's was painted by the Italian artist Mattia Preti. The specialty of Mattia Preti was that he painted directly on prepared stone, that is to say he used the stone like he would use a canvas, by oiling it and then painting directly on to the stone. Many artists who painted in Churches painted on canvas and then stuck the canvas to the ceiling. Mattia Preti was known as the Cavalier from Calabria as he had already joined the order before he came to Malta. The vault is divided into six sections and each section has three pictures depicting episodes in the life of the patron saint of the Order St John the Baptist. At the back opposite the main altar is a picture also by Mattia Preti showing the various duties of the order that is to help the sick, poor and wounded in times of peace and war, irrespective of race or religion. On either side of each window is a figure and at the back of each figure is a shadow. That is indeed no shadow but was also painted by Mattia Preti. The shadows are so perfectly done, that they look like refracted light. But if one had to go in the evening the shadows would still be there. The decorations on the wall were all paid for by the two Cottoner brothers Raphael Cottoner and Nicholas Cottoner. These brothers were both grand-masters. In fact on the left hand side of the church one can see the monograms RC and NC. St John's Co Cathedral has 375 graves. The gravestones, all in marble, show the knights and grand-masters that are buried in this cathedral. The only exception who is buried here is Mattia Preti. Mattia Preti remained here in Malta till he died in 1699. He spent five long years making this church beautiful so it was only fitting that he be buried in the church which he loved so much. On the top of each column is a plain white cross on a red background as, when the Order was formed, it adopted the Benedictine habit, which is a white cross on a red background - the cross of peace on the blood-stained fields of war. The eight-pointed cross, now known as the Maltese cross, came much later. Some historians say that the eight points signify the eight lands where the Knights of St John came from, while other historians say that, being a Religious Order, the four triangles are the four virtues and the eight points are the beatitudes coming out of the four virtues. St John's Co Cathedral has nine chapels - four on the right and five on the left. Starting with the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament -on the top right-hand side. The gates here are made of solid silver and, the icon of the Madonna above the tabernacle (in solid silver too), represents the Madonna of Philermos and it was brought to St John's from the St Catherine of Italy chapel. The next chapel belongs to one of the French languages Auvergne. It is dedicated to St Sebastian one of the early Christian martyrs. Here there is only one monument and it is dedicated to Grandmaster Annet de Clermont de Chattes - Gessan. His rule lasted only five months as then he died. The next chapel is dedicated to Aragon, the Spanish language. Here is another picture by Mattia Preti. When the Knights of the Order of St John wanted to know what Mattia Preti could do they asked him to send over a painting before they commissioned him to do the vault. He sent this picture of St George on a white horse. They liked what they saw and commissioned Mattia Preti to paint the vault of St John's Co Cathedral. In this chapel are four beautiful monuments to four Spanish grand-masters - Raphael Cottoner and his brother Nicholas, Martin DeRedin and a magnificent monument by Giuseppe Mazzuoli to Grand Master Perellos, who was a prince. The last chapel on the right-hand side belongs to the language of Castile and Leon, the Portuguese language. All the pictures in this chapel are by Mattia Preti. Here there are two fine monuments dedicated to two Portuguese grandmasters - Manoel Pinto and Manoel de Vilhena. On the other side, on the top left hand side is the Anglo-Bavarian chapel. When King Henry VIII quarreled with the Pope. King Henry disbanded the knights and took all their property. When they managed to join the order again, they joined to the Bavarian league - hence the Anglo-Bavarian chapel. This chapel is dedicated to St Charles Borromeo. The gates here, made of bronze, were once the gates to the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The next chapel is the chapel dedicated to the language of Province. It is dedicated to St Michael. The lunette here is by an unknown German artist, probably Lucas Killian. Here we have two monuments dedicated to two grandmasters from the region of Province - Jean Lascaris and Antoine de Paule. In this chapel from the top one can see the crypt which is no longer open to the public. Amongst other Grand masters is buried here Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Vallette, the grandmaster who was responsible for building Valletta. Further down on the left is the chapel dedicated to the French language and to the Conversion of St Paul. Here there are three monuments of three French grand masters Adrien Wignacourt and Joachim Wignacourt and an impressive mausoleum dedicated to Emanuel de Rohan. In this chapel is a very beautiful monument. It is the only monument which has nothing to do with the order. It is dedicated to the Vicount of Beaujolais. He was the brother of king Louis Philippe. He was in Malta on holiday with his brother in 1808 and whilst on holiday he died. Being a person of royal birth, a beautiful monument was erected in his honor in the chapel for the French language. marriage of St Catherine. Here there is only one monument of one Italian grandmaster - Gregorio Carafa. In this chapel there is also find one of the paintings by the well-known artist Caravaggio - the St Jerome. This painting was stolen some years back. The thieves threatened to tear it up if they did not get the ransom. It was found some years later badly damaged. It was sent to Rome to be restored and now hangs where it was before. The last chapel on the left is dedicated to the German language. This is also dedicated to the feast of the three kings - the Epiphany. Here there are no monuments dedicated to grandmasters. The reason being that the last and only German grandmaster was Ferdinand Von Hompesch and his reign lasted only one year, as then in 1798, Napoleon came to Malta and the Knights went back to their countries of origin. Hompesch died in Montpelier. Ironic but true, this was the only chapel in St John's to be bombarded and hit by the Luftwaffe. They hit just their own chapel and it was restored after the war. Of great interest in St John's Co Cathedral is the Oratorium. Here is where the Beheading of St John by Caravaggio is. This is the only picture which is signed by Caravaggio. This was discovered some years back when the picture was sent to be restored in Rome. This picture is five by three meters in size. Mattia Preti painted the pictures in the Oratorium, around the picture of Caravaggio, to harmonize with it. Caravaggio came to Malta in 1606 probably serving a penal sentence on one of the Order's galleys. He found favor with the Order and in the Oratorium itself he was allowed to join this elite Order. He was very proud of the fact so much so that the beheading of St John is the only one signed by Caravaggio. There is an 'F' in the blood coming out of the blood of the head of St John. He signed 'F' because being a religious order they called each other Frate, which means brother. Caravaggio was not his real name. His real name was Michelangelo Merisi or Merissi from Caravaggio, which is a little town outside Milan, where he was born. His father was an architect and he was not poor either like many people think. Caravaggio came after the Renaissance, where everything had to be perfect and everyone had to be beautiful and well-clad. This, Caravaggio felt, did not show the real soul of the artist. Once, the Church asked Caravaggio to paint a Madonna. When he finished the painting the Church would not accept it. They said the Madonna has no decorum as she is not wearing any sandals and besides he used prostitutes for his models. But Caravaggio was not perturbed he said 'It does not matter if the Church does not want my painting. I shall put it on the streets and let the people decide for themselves'. The people just went wild about his paintings. Caravaggio also started what in Italian is known as 'luce di cantina' that is 'the light of the cellars'. This means he uses a strong light to focus the main point or points and all the picture is built round this light. Caravaggio built three paintings while he was in Malta. These are the St Jerome in the Cathedral, the Beheading in the Oratorium and a portrait of grand master Olaf de Wignacourt in his gold-embossed armor. The armor is in the armory in The Grandmasters Palace in Valletta, while the portrait is in the Louvre in Paris. Being a bit of a wild type Caravaggio soon got himself into trouble. He was imprisoned in Fort St Angelo, sent away from the Order in the very Oratorium where he was enrolled into it, and it is said with the help of a knight he managed to escape from Fort St Angelo. On his way to Rome at the age of only 39 years he died. We are very lucky that Caravaggio came to Malta, as Caravaggio is a very big name in the world of art. He stayed in Malta one and a half years. Also of great interest in St John's is the museum where, amongst other things, there are 29 tapestries which were a present from Grandmaster Perellos.
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