Embedded Files
a historical account
Historical documents indicate that some form of external feast in honour of St Julian was held even before the establishment of the parish. In 1877, the feast was celebrated on Sunday, 26 August. The liturgical functions in the church included music directed by Maestro Malfiggiani, while the external festivities featured illuminations, fireworks, the greasy pole (ġostra), and marches by the La Nazionale Vincitrice Band as well as those from Birkirkara and Floriana.
The closing years of the nineteenth century marked a golden era for the people of St Julian’s. With the decree Quum Incloae, the Bishop of Malta, Mgr Pietro Pace, fulfilled the long-cherished wish of the community to have their own parish. What followed was a succession of significant milestones in parish life, one after another. It was a time of elation for the people of St Julian’s, who witnessed the realisation of what they had been praying for since 1849. Determined and energetic, they laboured to enlarge the church to the proportions we know today, to embellish it with new works of art, and to furnish it with the necessary liturgical objects. At the heart of these additions was a treasure still held dear by the parish: the processional statue of St Julian, a papier-mâché masterpiece by the celebrated Carlo Darmanin and a gift from Salvatore Mattei. With great festivities, it was carried to the parish church on the night of 13 August 1893 and blessed by the Vicar General of the Diocese.
A valuable source for the early history of the feast of St Julian is the Libro Esito della Procura della Veneranda Lampade della Chiesa Parrocchiale di San Giuliano. This account book — kept by the Procurator of the Holy Lamp, whose first duty was to provide oil for the sanctuary lamp before the Blessed Sacrament — offers precious insight into parish life between 5 November 1895 and 18 February 1904. Every expense was carefully recorded in it by Dun Ġiljan Zammit, who served as church procurator during the term of office of Parish Priest Dun Ġużepp Xerri (from 1895 onwards) and retained this responsibility when he himself became parish priest of St Julian’s following Xerri's death.
From the pages of this register emerges a clear picture: the very elements that still shape the feast of St Julian today are rooted deep in the past. These were times when the people found their joy in their faith and gave it expression through their celebrations. Each feast was observed with solemnity. Preachers were invited from across the island, and great importance was attached to music, which elevated the liturgy on such occasions. The people of St Julian’s were in no way lacking in this spirit of devotion and festivity.
For the feast, two priests would be invited: one to preach during the three days of the triduum, and another to deliver the panegyric, a homily of praise in honour of the patron saint of the parish on the feast day itself. The triduum music was entrusted to Maestro Alberto Vella, the church’s resident maestro di cappella, while the Cappella Nani directed the music of the liturgy on the feast day and its eve. To this day, we take pride in the antiphons and sacred music left to us by the composers of this family, foremost among them Mro Dr Paolo Nani. His works include two antiphons, Beate Juliane (1847) and (1893), the strophic hymn Nomine Insignem, and the translation hymn Iste Confessor. This music forms an integral part of our cultural identity as Ġiljaniżi who love our parish, and we feel great joy whenever we hear it played during the feast days.
A curious fact is that the antiphon we hold so dear was not originally written for St Julian's. The antiphon Beate Juliane composed by Paolo Nani specifically for St Julian's dates to 1893, the very year the titular statue was completed. Yet the people of St Julian longed for an antiphon that was more melodic and majestic, and so Nani adapted the text of the antiphon to the music of Iste Sanctus, which had originally been composed for the feast of St Demetrius at Senglea in 1847. This antiphon was performed at various other feasts, including that of St Julian. Over time, however, its use elsewhere faded, and it remained in use exclusively for St Julian's. The original score was eventually presented to the parish by the last musician of the Nani dynasty, Mro Paul Nani, son of Antonio.
There is no doubt that traditional Maltese feasts trace their origins to liturgical celebrations within the church. The feasts were born inside the church. Yet, over time, the streets of Malta’s towns and villages, as well as those of Gozo, became like extensions of the sacred space. The people no longer expressed their Christian faith and joy solely by attending liturgical functions, but also by transforming the streets into a spectacle of devotion and celebration for their patron saint. Roads were adorned with illuminations, flags, street banners, festoons, and statues; music filled the air; fireworks and petards resounded; while other activities such as the greasy pole also formed part of the festivities.
In St Julian’s, the beginnings of the external feast take us back to a time when the church celebrated the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 15 August, or on the following Sunday. Achille Ferris, in his Descrizione Storica della Chiese di Malta e Gozo, recounts that although from ancient times the church was dedicated to St Julian, it was commonly known as Ta’ Lapsi, and the titular painting was dedicated to the Assumption. It was an era when a Marian movement had succeeded in changing the titular devotion of the church, so that the parish feast became that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast of Santa Marija already contained many of the features of an external celebration. Illuminations were held on the eve and day of the feast, sometimes extending even to the Spinola Palace, which at the time served as a Jesuit villa. By 1860, the feast also included fireworks and the traditional 'ġostra' or greasy pole.
The strong devotion to St Julian, which had already taken root before Bishop Gargallo’s pastoral visit in 1601, never died out, not even in later centuries. With the establishment of the parish, the people of St Julian's longed for the titular painting of their Patron to be restored to its rightful place - and so it was. The granting of parish status in 1891 brought with it a new wave of enthusiasm, and this, together with the arrival of the processional statue on the night of 13 August 1893, inevitably led to the growth of the feast and its solemn celebration outside the church as well.
By 1896, the streets of St Julian’s were still lit by the dim glow of oil lamps, as were the homes of its residents. For the feast, however, the façade of the parish church and the surrounding streets were specially illuminated for the occasion by a person engaged for the task, using oil lamps. That same year, the Procura della Veneranda Lampade paid a certain Carmelo Agius the sum of ten pounds and ten shillings “per illuminazioni.” Additional expenses were also recorded: one shilling and five shillings for empty glass containers and their transport; one shilling and a half for wicks; and ten shillings for oil.
In the feasts of St Julian of 1901 and 1902, a new innovation seems to have been introduced. Here we find, alongside the usual payments for the external festivities, entries for expenses related to gas. This indicates that gas was probably beginning to be used for the illumination of the church façade and the surrounding streets during the feast days. It also appears that at this time the people of St Julian’s were seeking to expand the external celebrations by adding more street decorations.
In the feast accounts of 1896, we find a note of a payment of five pounds to “L. Rocco per pedestallo di un angelo.” This suggests that statues were being commissioned to embellish the area outside the church. Confirmation of this comes from a payment recorded on 15 August of the following year, listing an expense of eight pounds “al Sig. C. Darmanin per una statua rappresentante un angelo.”
This account book records several payments made by the Procurator of the Holy Lamp to various bands that, year after year, brought joy to the people of St Julian’s during the feast days of their Patron. The period under discussion lies well before the time when Dun Pawl Galea gathered a group of youths at the Domus (a catechism house) he had established in Birkirkara Hill, and encouraged Angelo Pullicino to continue training them in music and to form a band. That same band would later be incorporated into the Circolo San Giuliano and become the Circolo Filarmonica San Giuliano in 1927. It is an even more distant time from the founding of the second band in St Julian’s by Ġiljan Bonello in 1987.
Thus, the bands that took part in the titular feast at this stage were those invited by the parish priest.
Naturally, the fireworks of those days were far more modest than the spectacular displays that continued to grow over time and which we have become accustomed to in our own locality today. Nevertheless, even then the feast of St Julian was not without this essential element. The payments recorded in this account book frequently refer to gunpowder, bombs, petards, and ground fireworks - referred to as guochi di fuoco.
These elements remain part of the feast of St Julian to this very day: the liturgy in the church, the illuminations and street decorations, the bands, the fireworks, and the greasy pole or ġostra. Sadly, progress has also brought with it certain regressions, which have affected the feast of St Julian. Yet our voluntary organisation, together with many others, continues to strive to ensure that this beautiful tradition remains an integral part of the parish and local calendar.
This article was written by Niki Papagiorcopulo.
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