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Malta Study Center

 

Rabat, Wignacourt Museum

173 mss + 3 printed works

Collections: St. Paul's Grotto (Crypta S. Pauli); St. Paul's Parish Church, Rabat; St. Paul's Grotto Collegiate Chapter

Archives of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul, Rabat, Malta

The Wignacourt Museum contains the archives of the College of Chaplains of the Order of St. John, established on the site by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, in 1617; the parish archives of St. Paul's Grotto Parish Church; and numerous other manuscripts, books, music collections, and ephemera relating to the history of these institutions. The Malta Study Center microfilming project, under the direction of Msgr. John Azzopardi, microfilmed sections of the archives. Portions of the collection remain uncatalogued.

The archival collection records the written history of a remarkable site. St. Paul's parish church, the adjoining chapel of St. Publius, and the Wignacourt Museum building are erected on the site of St. Paul's Grotto where, according to tradition, Paul was imprisoned after he was shipwrecked on the island of Malta.  The site, which is located outside the walls of the Roman city of Melite, is honeycombed with catacombs dating from Roman times.   A medieval chapel stood on the site, and at some time before 1575 altars were carved out of the grotto.  The present church of St. Paul and the neighboring chapel of St. Publius were built between 1575-1578, and rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake according to the designs of Lorenzo Gafa. The Wignacourt Museum is housed in the Wignacourt College, named for Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt who created a college of chaplains of the Order of St. John to officiate at St. Paul's Grotto in 1617. Wignacourt built the baroque convent for the college that was connected to the Grotto by an underground passage.

St. Paul's Grotto was originally a parish church under the jurisdiction of the cathedral of Mdina, but the Grotto was officially separated from the parish administration in 1610, and entrusted to the Knights of St. John in 1617.  but in 1902 Rabat and Mdina became two separate parishes; the parish of St. Paul's attained the status of a Collegiate Church in 1962. The archives are located in the Wignacourt Collegiate Museum.

Index of microfilmed archives:

  • Acta originalia curiae provicarialis civitatis notabilis (1 ms) 1823-1825
  • Confraternitates (2 mss) 1699-1782
  • Conti (Introito ed Esito) (88 mss) 1635-1922
  • Decime (1 ms) 1583-1586
  • Deliberaziozi (4 mss) 1782-1961
  • Documenti e lettere (10 mss) 1641-1943
  • Dottor Giac° Marchese (1 ms) 408-1847
  • Esigenziale (4 mss) 1764-1885
  • Fabrica (3 mss) 1682-1852
  • Inventario (2 mss) 1756-1855
  • Lampade della parrochiale chiesa (1 ms) 1616-1820
  • Libro d'annotationi apparetnenti al collegio (1 ms) 1705-1735
  • Miscellanea (12 mss) 1551-1907
  • Plans, sketches, and estimates for St. Paul's Anglican cathedral (1 ms) 1841-1844
  • Status animarum (5 mss) 1770-1849


Bibliography: John Azzopardi, ed., St. Paul's Grotto, Church and Museum at Rabat, Malta (Rabat: Friends of the Cathedral Museum, Rabat--Malta, 1990).

Parish Records of St. Paul's Grotto Church, Rabat, 1902-1966

Baptisms 1902-1961 (10 mss)
Confirmations 1941-1966 (1 ms)
Marriages 1902-1961 (7 mss)
Deaths 1902-1925 (3 mss)
 

Note: For entries of this parish from 1436 to 1902, see the registers of Mdina, which formed one parish with Rabat up to 1902.

Contents:

  1. Liber baptizatorum, vol. I, 1902-1916 (HMML #Malta 3681). First entry: 17 March 1902.Entries are included in Index vol.1.
  2. Liber baptizatorum, vol. II, 1917-1924 (HMML #Malta 3682). Pages 515 and 535 are omitted. Entries are included in Index vol. 1.
  3. Liber baptizatorum, vol. III, 1924-1931(HMML #Malta 3683). Entries are included in Index vol.1.
  4. Liber baptizatorum, vol. IV 1932-1938 (HMML #Malta 3684). Pages 193, 194 are interchanged with pages 175 and 176. Entries are included in Index vol. 2.
  5. Liber baptizatorum, vol. V, 1938-1944 (HMML #Malta 3691). First entry: 3 December 1938. Entries are included in Index vol.2.
  6. Liber baptizatorum, vol. VI, 1944-1946 (HMML #Malta 3692). First entry: 25 July 1944. Entries are included in Index 2.
  7. Liber baptizatorum, vol. VII, 1946-1948 (HMML #Malta 3693). First entry: 21 February 1946. Entries are included in Index vol.3.
  8. Liber baptizatorum, vol. VIII, 1948-1952 (HMML #Malta 3694). First entry: 2 October 1948. Entries are included in Index vol. 3.
  9. Liber baptizatorum, vol. IX, 1952-1957 (HMML #Malta 3695). First entry: 14 December 1952. Entries included in Index vol.4.
  10. Liber baptizatorum, vol. X, 1957-1961 (HMML #Malta 3696). First entry: 25 April 1957. Indexed.
  11. Liber confirmatorum, vol. V, 1941-1966 (HMML #Malta 3717). List of confirmations on backpage.
  12. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. I, 1902-1906 (HMML #Malta 3704). First entry: 27 April 1902. Indexed.
  13. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. II, 1906-1914 (HMML #Malta 3705). First entry: 25 January 1906. Indexed.
  14. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. III, 1914-1928 (HMML #Malta 3706). First entry: 7 June 1914. Indexed.
  15. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. IV, 1928-1941 (HMML #Malta 3707). First entry: 3 June 1928. Indexed.
  16. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. V, 1941-1945 (HMML #Malta 3718). First entry: 8 November 1941. Alphabetical index.
  17. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. VI, 1945-1953 (HMML #Malta 3719). First entry: 18 August 1945. Alphabetical index.
  18. Liber matrimoniorum, vol. VII, 1953-1961 (HMML #Malta 3720). First entry: 6 September 1953. Alphabetical index.
  19. Liber defunctorum, vol. I, 1902-1903 (HMML #Malta 3853). Alphabetical index.
  20. Liber defunctorum, vol. II, 1903-1913 (HMML #Malta 3854). Alphabetical index.
  21. Liber defunctorum, vol. III, 1913-1925 (HMML #Malta 3855). Alphabetical index.

Wignacourt Museum Musical Archives

These music collections are catalogued, but they have not been microfilmed or digitized. The catalogues are available here in downloadable Adobe pdf format. Users must contact the Wignacourt Museum for copies of the music.

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updated 3/18/2010