This year the Archconfraternity of the Holy Crucifix established at the church of Our Lady of Jesus (Ta’ Giesu) in Valletta has decided to restore the set of statues which are carried in procession on Good Friday.

This was possible because the Curia approved such restoration. During the last few weeks the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was ably restored by Rev. Fr Charles Vella. The materials for the restoration of this statue went up to hundreds of liri.

The Archconfraternity has no fixed income and depends on the collections it makes during the processions of Our Lady of Sorrows, Good Friday and the special collection box fixed near the altar of the Miraculous Crucifix at the same church. As I wrote further up, work on the restoration of the other seven statues is going to be taken in hand as soon as Easter is over. I think that to restore this number of statues, which includes 14 life size figures, one needs a good sum of money, at least to buy the expensive restoration materials needed.

The Archconfraternity already received some donations but these are not enough. It would be of tremendous help if people and organisations, especially of Valletta, could send a donation to the Archconfraternity so that these statues could be restored to their former glory. One must remember that most of these are over 200 years old and are the works of the best Maltese statue makers Saverio Laferla, P. P. Azzopardi, Carlo Darmanin as well as other unknown artists.

Antoine Cesareo

San Gwann