| Page Views: 250 Last Visit to Rabat: August, 2003 | Eszter's Rabat Page by Eszter - last update: Mar 30, 2004 |
St. Paul's Church in the heart of Rabat
The parish church of Rabat, founded in 1575 but remodelled in 1692, was built over one of Malta's earliest Christian chapels, on the same spot where St. Paul once preached. |
|  | The Grotto of St. Paul, below the adjoining Chapel of St. Publius, is the main point of interest.
According to local Christian belief, it was here that St. Paul spent several weeks preaching Christianity; another story has it that the apostle was imprisoned here.
It is also said that stone scraped from the grotto walls has special healing powers and that, no matter how much stone is scraped away, the cave never alters in size. |
The prominent feature, below a series of dimly lit catacombs, is a marble statue of St. Paul.
In 1990 Pope John Paul II visited Rabat and came to pray in the grotto. His starting prayer, 'God Bless Malta and the Maltese', is inscribed on a plaque on the exterior wall of the church. | | |
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