Charles R. Cassar
'Stones of Faith'
Tombstones, funerary rites and customs at the Gozo Matrice
Midsea Books
2012
204 pp

For some people Halloween is a time for riotous celebration, masquerade, outlandish costumes and ghosts. For others, it is a time for religious celebration. Even in this post-religious age, there is a certain beauty in the solemn tolling of bells on Halloween evening.

The current age is not so "memento mori"-fixated as in the height of the Baroque period with all those skeletons one sees climbing over pope's monuments in St Peter's in Rome and on the knights' tombs in St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

This is a book about funerary tombstones in the Gozo Cathedral. I would say this is the largest collection of Maltese people in the Maltese islands, given the ones buried in St John's are all (with one exception, I believe) foreigners. There are funerary tombstones in other Maltese churches - Ta' Giezu church in Valletta and the Carmelite church as well while the Mdina Cathedral has tombstones prevalently related to bishops and canons.

The Gozo Cathedral has a colourful history. Prior to the 1551 invasion of Gozo there seem to have been many churches inside the Castello, including one, the Matrice, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. Following the invasion and the sacking of the Castello and the taking of most Gozitans into slavery, many buildings, including the Matrice, were left abandoned.

It took around 100 years for the population to get back to the same strength as in 1551. Meanwhile, the Matrice had become a Collegiate Church. Around 1680 the need for a new church was being felt but then the existing Matrice was severely damaged in the earthquake of 11 January 1693. The new archpriest, Nicolo' Natale Cassia Magri, took on the responsibility of building the new church and commissioned well-known architect Lorenzo Cafa to build it, giving it its present, striking appearance, so different from the other Cafa churches like the Mdina Cathedral and the Zejtun parish church.

Burial inside the Matrice had been going on even in the 15^th century, especially for nobles, some of foreign origin. Many built chapels which were sort of added to the Matrice building. Most probably, the author says, the remains of people buried in the old church were either left in their original resting place or else transported to a common ossuary within the new Cafa church.

The book describes the elaborate ritual associated with death and burial in the 17^th and 18^th centuries but then, through elaborate study of the cathedral archives, reveals an interesting background to the deaths and funerals of two of the heroes in the anti-French revolt - Governor Emmanuele Vitale and Gozo Archpriest Can. Saverio Cassar.

Governor Vitale, who was promoted to Governor by the British in thanksgiving for his efforts during the blockade, died after only six months in office and was given what we may call a State funeral.

But Archpriest Cassar, who had led the revolt in Gozo and who was the head of Gozo when this was, or considered itself, as an almost independent state so much so he sent his ambassadors to Palermo, was hated by the British who removed him from his post as Governor and appointed Vitale instead of him (and appointed the man who had given him much trouble as Vitale's lieutenant).

Cassar died a broken man, some three years after Vitale's death, but his funeral was held in St George's church, not in the Matrice even though he had remained its archpriest throughout. That's British "damnatio memoriae" for you.

There are, in all, 66 tombstones in the church, of which 31 were laid in just seven years, from 1879 to 1885, to fill up the remaining spaces inside the church.

The author gives some details about curiosities and rumours about some of the tombstones. One such rumour is that the tombstone of Cassia Magri , the side of which can be seen today, is actually the reverse of the original tombstone since he had first been buried in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and it had become eroded. Another tombstone, that of Fortunata Spiteri, the cousin of Carolina Cauchi, the foundress of the Dominican Sisters of Malta, which is said to have been a recycled tombstone, brought over from St George's church.

Another tombstone, that of Nicolaus Bugeja, in the north aisle, seems to have an angel (a putto) with six toes. The most titled person buried inside the church is Marquis Laurentius Antonius Cassar Desain, who died at just 35 years old but who somehow managed to become a Roman patrician, a member of a Messinese noble family and a knight of two distinct orders.

The author then describes in detail six 18th century tombstones in the church. One such tombstone is actually an opening to a small crypt underneath the church, where the priest members of the St Philip Neri Congregation were buried.

The book includes photos of all tombs and all the Latin inscriptions on all tombs.