Description
An inscription engraved in local stone on one of the internal walls of the Old Parish Church of St Catherine at Żejtun states:
“On the 6th July 1614, on a Sunday morning, the Turkish fleest consisting of 60 galleys, entered St Thomas Bay and about six thousand men came ashore. They came to the villages and arrived up to the Land of Bulebel. They killed a lot of livestock, they ransacked the villages, and burnt the crop, they have vandalised St Catherine’s and all its altars, but a lot of them were killed and they ran away to the bay and no one from the Christians was captured from the Christians about twenty were wounded and up to the 11 September 1614, the children born in the parish, were baptised in other parishes: Extract from the second book of baptisms of this parish.”
Eight papers were presented by different scholars during the second Symposium organised by Wirt iż-Żejtun, under the title “The Turkish Raid of 1614”, aimed at commemorating the 4th centenary anniversary of this historical event. These scholars tried to explore contrasting perspectives of the political, military and strategic implications prior, during and subsequent to the attack, and to determine the immediate and eventual impact the attack had on both the locals and the Order of St John in Malta.
The studies presented ventured into new discoveries and proposed new thoughts about this considerably undervalued episode of the Maltese and Hospitaller history.
