Sunday May 1st, 2016the Club held a cultural outing at St. Mark Priory and Church at Rabat
Fr.David Cortis, who joined the Augustinian Order ten years ago, ably introduced us to the Augustinian Order of Friars and its history in Malta. We were told that the Augustinian Order arrived in Malta towards the end of the 1300 beginning of 1400. Unfortunately as the early archives of the Order was destroyed during the siege of 1551, the exact date is not known. The present priory is the third to be built in the Rabat area.
The library contains hundred of books mostly concerning religion, theology and philosophy subjects. One of the most intriguing contents of the priory is a giant size grand father clock dating to 1760 having been restored in the 1880’s by our very own clock maker Michelang Sapiano.
St. Mark Church was designed by Architect Gerolamo Cassar, as a prototype for the church of St. John in Valletta. The decoration is in High Baroque. There are paintings by Mattia Preti and artists of the Erardi Family. Fr. David pointed out to us that it is believed that in the chapel dedicated to St. Jerome there might be skeletal remains of the architect. St. Jerome being the architect’s saint name.
The view from the terrace is spectacular as one can literally see kilometres away.
The party ate at Al Convento in Mdina, although the food was good the waiting was excessive, notwithstanding the fact that Bella and Margaret had personally gone to talk to the restaurant manager to see that service would flow smoothly. The waiting was due to the fact that there was a wide variety of meals ordered. The waiting was not wasted as it was evident that Lions and their guests were in pleasant conversation.
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