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Senglea seamen who helped the parish
church
This chapter takes us back towards the end of the 17th
century, to be precise to the period 1696-1698. The Parish priest of Senglea was
Dun Mikiel Testaferra who was approaching his seventies. The city of
The parish had an office called the Procurator of the Sea. It seems that
this person was chosen by the Parish priest and by the Fraternity of the
Sacrament. The Procurator in this particular period was Giovanne Bonhomo.
The Procurator’s office was called ‘Introito del Mare’ – income from the
sea. Vessels of all shapes and sizes were frequent visitors to the
The particular period we are treating in this chapter dates from
The names of most of the owners or captains are not recorded, only the
total amounts collected were noted. Some names of captains and/or owners noted
are: Anglu Seichel, Guzeppi Cassano and Antonio Rizzo.
The generosity of the seamen varied a lot. They used to put in coins used
in that period, namely the skudi, irbajja and the habbiet. There is a record of
a very generous donation of one hundred skudi. In those days a person on low
wages needed about three months to earn that sum. It means that December 1698
was a good month for the sailors of that particular vessel. For the period
covered the total amount collected was two hundred and two skudi, two irbajja
and ten habbiet. The one hundred skudi collected in December 1698 are included
in this total.
This chapter throw some light on parts of our history about which we do
not know so much detail.
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The wine used during
Mass in Senglea’s church
When the Bishop
visited the parish of Senglea, his visit used to be over in a couple of days
because the Parish priest prepared all that the Bishop wanted to know beforehand
in a written report. The Parish priest took the written reports to the
Chancellor in charge of the Bishop’s visit and the latter than kept these
records in the Curia’s archives. The Chancellor did not need to go into
unnecessary details just the information needed in those days to keep good
records of what was going on in the parish.
Among the
details kept at the Bishop’s Curia was the record of the wine used for Mass at
the parish. There were only favourable comments regarding these records because
they were kept in very good order. For this chapter we are only dealing the
records of two particular dates namely that of
The Parish
priest than was Dun Mikiel Testaferrata and there was a large number of priests
in Senglea in those days. All Masses were said separately. There were no
concelebrating Masses than. So wine was used in great quantity.
There was a
Procurator in charge of wine and the sexton used to help him buy the wine
directly from the farmers. In those days wine was also imported and the
Procurator used to buy wine from different parts of
Here we are
referring to pure wine made from the wine and used only during the celebration
of Mass. The wine was not bottled in bottles than but bottled in crates of
different sizes. The cost of the wine varied a lot and naturally local wine was
cheaper because there were no transport charges. A local crate cost an average
of three skudi. Wine from overseas was imported on very regular basis because
trade between