FRATERNITY OF OUR LADY OF CARMEL

The Order of the Carmelite Friars arrived in Malta in the early days of the fifteenth century. They built their first convent near the church of the Annunciation just outside Mdina. This church and the surrounding lands were given to the Order in 1418 by Donna Margherita, the widow of the Noble Giacomo di Pellegrino, who was a member of the royal family of Aragon in Spain. From that church the Carmelite Friars did all they could to spread the devotion in Malta to the scapular of Our Lady.      In those days Senglea was still one hundred and fifty years from becoming a parish and when it was made a parish in 1581 even though there were many altars in the church dedicated to Our Lady, where even the church was dedicated to the Birth of Our Lady devotion towards Our Lady of Carmel took some time to take off. In fact the first altar in Senglea dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel was found in the church of Porto Salvo (more commonly known as the church of St Philip) and not in the parish church. The church of Porto Salvo was rebuilt in 1670-1690, where it was enlarged and some altars were added. One of these new altars was dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel and it is still the same up to today. The titular painting of this altar was painted by Alessio Erardi.      The first time there is mentioning that there was an altar in the parish dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel was in 1719. The first legates connected to this altar were signed on the 9th January 1719. In these legates it was noted that the altar was a new one and that it was erected where previously there was the entrance to the cemetery and to the chapel of St Rocco. There was great devotion to St Rocco and St Sebastian patron saints to protect us from the plagues. So on the titular pictures put up on the altar these two saints are also included as a reminder of the devotion there was in those days. The main personalities in the painting are Our Lady with Baby Jesus and St Paul. This painting which was painted at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century is now kept in the sacristy of the Basilica.

      This altar is once again mentioned in the report made following the Pastoral Visit made by Bishop Giacomo Gannaves in 1720. The report said that it is a new altar but up to than there was no mentioning of any Fraternity connected to it.

The setting up of the Fraternity 

     In 1721, during the time of Parish priest Dun Fortunat Vella, the Fraternity was set up and approved by a decree of the Bishop Gaspare Gori Mancini. The Fraternity took nearly one hundred years had to pass before it started to function like the other Fraternities of the Parish.

     This is confirmed in the report made following the Pastoral Visit of the Bishop Giovanni Pellegrano in 1772 which said that there was great devotion towards Our Lady of Carmel but there is no mention whatsoever of the Fraternity and not only that but even the altar was referred as being dedicated to St Rocco and St Sebastian.

     Nonetheless improvement still continued to be made to the altar. In 1781 some of it was covered in marble and in the following year a small painting of Our Lady of Good Counsel, paid for by the Parish priest Dun Salv Bonnici was put up on the altar. This helped in that the devotion towards Our Lady was increased especially during the month of May. In January 1786, just months before our parish was elevated to the state of Collegiate, Bishop Vincenzo Labini paid us another Pastor Visit and in his report there is still not mention of the Fraternity as if it had never been set up.

      Finally the time for the Fraternity to start functioning arrived too. In 1838 during the time of Arch priest Canon Dun Leopoldu Fiteni the Fraternity started functioning after it was amalgamated with the Congregation of Christian Doctrine and with the Congregation of Penance. The Congregation of Penance was set up in the church of St Julians in Senglea in 1774. This amalgamation proved to be the push the Fraternity needed to start functioning because from than on, little by little, it proved to be of great spiritual aid to the parishioners. The Fraternity also started to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Carmel every 16^th July.

     This Fraternity reached its peak during the second half of the 19^th century.

     In March 1881 a new perspective was made and the Senglean artist Guzeppi Bonnici painted a new titular picture. We can say that without any doubt that this was the first painting in our parish which clearly represented Our Lady of Carmel. During that period but definitely before 1888 the Senglea sculptor Aristide Bonnici sculptured the statue of Our Lady of Christian Teaching, which after some time was acquired by the Fraternity of Our Lady of Carmel. A papier mache statue of Baby Jesus was made by the Senglean sculptor of statues Karlu Darmanin and this was added to the statue thus converting it to resemble the statue of Our Lady of Carmel. Some time afterwards a pedestal was made and the statue could than be carried out in procession.

     The devotion towards Our Lady of Carmel was on the increase now and many joined the Fraternity or the scapular. The members of the Fraternity were very active and in 1899 they made a new marble altar which was consecrated by the Senglean Bishop Mons Salvatore Gaffiero. In 1921 the Bonnici painting was replaced by one made by Ramiro Cali which is still there on the altar up to today. One must note that after the war the Bonnici picture was slightly altered to represent Our Lady of Chain and put on its altar because the original one was destroyed during the war.

     This Fraternity, like more other Fraternities in Senglea, stopped functioning when the war began and was never revived. The documents and registers which survived the war now kept in the archives of the parish.

Ornaments and decorations      As we saw above the life span of this Fraternity was much shorter that that of other Fraternities in Senglea. Its members worked tirelessly during their active years and managed to procure ornaments to embellish the altar. One can say that this altar is not short of ornaments or decorations.      A set of metal candlesticks gilded in silver are used during the time of the feast. Six small statuettes representing saints who have some connections with the Order of the Carmelites are placed in the space in between. The saints are: the prophets Elias and Eliseus; St Telesforus, Pope; Saint Simon Stock; St Dionysius and St John of the Cross. These statuettes were made by Wistin Camilleri in the beginning of the twentieth   century. The altar frontal which was made in the same period was designed by the Senglean Mikiel Degiovanni and the figure of St Elias riding a fire chariot drawn by three horses is very conspicuous and eye catching. The altar cards were made following a collection from the general public. This fact is recorded in the scratched note on one of them which says: Fatti dalla Raccolta 1859 (made following collection in 1859). The silver cover of the missal has a figure of Our Lady of Carmel on one side and Saint Elias on the other side. The hanging oil lamb was made in 1909 through the generosity of the members of the Fraternity and of the people of Senglea. This fact is also incised on the hanging lamp itself for posterity. During the time of the feast a velvet cloth is put on the altar and it is embroidered with golden threads. The design is quite intricate and the material used in very fine golden threads.

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