SAINT PAUL'S SHIPWRECK
In Festo Naufragi Sancti Pauli Apostoli
"Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea." 2 Corinthians 11:25
Today is the feast on Malta of the Shipwreck thereon of the Blessed Apostle Paul. We know of this because, as we recall from his Epistles, and from the antiphons of the feast we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, the Holy Apostle was fond of a good moan, a source of great comfort to anyone living today, or indeed in any age.
Nevertheless, taking refuge in cave, a place of enduring pilgrimage, he found a people still in the darkness of the absence of Faith, but who held naturally within themselves that charity which the charism of our Beloved Order would one day truly make theirs:
"And when we were escaped, then we knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and refreshed us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." Acts 28:1,2
In all, Saint Paul was shipwrecked three times, but only once amongst us! Our Order had not celebrated it formally since 1798, a shame, having built such a truly beautiful capitular church in the honour of this great feast.
