The Franciscan Family in Malta celebrated the 800 years of the event of the receiving of the stigmata on Mount La Verna by St. Francis of Assisi (1224) with a Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Gozo, Anton Teuma, in our Ħamrun church, on Tuesday 17 September. On that day the Franciscan Order celebrates the feast of the stigmata of St. Francis and the Ħamrun church is dedicated to this particular event of the life of the Saint of Assisi. All members of the Franciscan Family in Malta took part, namely the Franciscan friars of the three families of the First Order, the Poor Clares, the Franciscan Sisters of the 3 female Franciscan congregations present in Malta, the Secular Franciscan Order, and other faithful who are close to the Franciscan Family. Bishop Teuma spoke about the importance of accepting our wounds (stigmata) in the light of Christian faith, just as St. Francis did, and thus become instruments of evangelisation in our world which tries to escape from suffering and pain in order to propose a kind of happiness which is not durable. At the end of the Mass the Minister Provincial, Br. Anthony Chircop OFM, in the name of all the members of the Franciscan Family, presented Bishop Teuma with a bas-relief of St. Francis receiving the stigmata, which is a copy of the original representation in the Sanctuary of La Verna, together with a relic of Calvary, brought over from the Holy Land. After the Mass all were invited for refreshments in the Ħamrun friary.
