Posts Tagged ‘St Gregory’s church’

  • LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU

    GREZZJU VELLA accompanied me up to the roof of St Gregory’s Church, and pointed out the area where the opening to his macabre revelation had been discovered. Boldly he even ventured into the three passageways but he refused to approach the skeletons lying before us in solemn silence.

    Since 1969, a series of secret passages accidentally discovered by a 16-year-old Grezzju within the historic church of St Gregory which was rebuilt in the 15th Century, have posed an unsolved riddle. Inside were a heap of skeletons – a shocking discovery that left a deep and troubling impression on the young man. After reporting the find, he decided to avoid speaking about the incident, until now, at age 58, he felt ready to open up to me about it.

    Bones at St Gregory's church ŻejtunAmong the skeletons were some medieval coins, a Byzantine cross, a metal net which historians identified as of a type that used to be worn under a suit of armour, and a shoe-sole. No one knows why these remains were in these tunnels or who the skeletons belonged to. Initially it was believed that they were the unfortunate victims of a Turkish or pirate attack, of the type that were quite frequent in the days of when and after the church was built. However in 1978, nine years after this discovery, these remains have undergone paleopathological studies, producing the first report on medieval bones found in Malta (1). Both the evidence of soil within some bones and the wide discrepancy in the total number of bones pertaining to various parts of the body indicated that probably these were exhumed from some sort of cemetery. Most of the skeletons were very well preserved, possibly because they were confined in a completely covered and well ventilated passage. Among the bones, 19 male skulls and 24 female skulls were discovered, the youngest belonging to a child of about 8 years. It was not possible to arrive at a conclusion about the cause of death of these individuals but the appearance of the bones suggested that these people had died within a short time from each other. Eventually the experts who conducted this analysis, Seshadri Ramaswamy and Joseph Leslie Pace, came to the conclusion that most likely, one of the passages was used as an ossuary. Tentatively they also proposed the idea that these bones could have been moved to this location when some graves were cleared in order to make space for the original extension of the church (2).

    Within the passageways, Grezzju took me back to that fateful day in 1969.

    Grezzju Vella showing the location of the opening“I had never heard any rumours about the existence of secret passages built round the dome of St Gregory’s church in Żejtun. If I had known, I would certainly have kept away from the roof of the church upon which one day I was thoughtlessly scratching away – a scratching that revealed the sealed opening.

    I was helping with the maintenance of the wooden apertures of the old church, together with my uncle Carmelo Spiteri and a fellow worker Ċikku Zammit, when Dun Ġwann Palmier asked us to take a look at the roof as it was leaking rain-water. Up we went, walking around the ancient dome which is thought to be one of the oldest domes in Malta. The views up there are beautiful… at least if you avoid looking at the nearby cemetry crowded with ghostly white-marbled tombs. I don’t know why but I always had an instinctive fear of the dead and death itself, a strong gut-feeling which I could not suppress, not even today.

    St Gregory's church ŻejtunI was probably just trying to kill time as I sat down and scraped off at a narrow fracture on the roof whilst the others were inspecting the rest of the area in order to identify the parts where grouting was needed. To my surprise, the more I hacked at the crack, the more it widened, till at one point I decided to throw a pebble inside to see whether I could hear it fall into the church below. However oddly enough, when I threw it in, I heard it falling nearby and I realized immediately that there could be some sort of structure within the dome itself. I called the others who at first did not take much notice of what I was doing, but when it became evident that there was an ashlar block, my uncle urged me to carve it out. Curiously I slashed off the remaining sealant and on taking the block away, we found that it had been acting as a perfect wedge to lock the opening to a chamber.

    We decided to stop and called for Dun Gwann to come and have a look. The discovery left him puzzled because although he had been responsible for the upkeep of the church for some time, he had never known about this chamber, although he had heard folk tales of hidden passages located in the vicinity of the church. Soon after we were also joined by Ġanmarì Debono, the sacristan of the church, who also had no idea where this opening could lead to. Since I was the youngest and the leaner one, it was decided that I should be lowered down with a rope so that I could see what was inside.

    Architectural detail of St Gregory's church ŻejtunThey tied a rope around my waist and gave me a box of matches to find my way through in the darkness. As soon as I touched the floor I lit the first match and in the few seconds of light that it gave me, I managed to see that I was in some sort of passage. With the aid of the fleeting weak light of one match after another, I walked a distance of about 30 feet, but there was much more space in front of me. I hesitated and nervously turned back, alerting the others that the area covered much more than we had originally thought.

    It was then that Dun Gwann had a premonition that I had found the enigmatic passages that people used to narrate stories about. Strangely enough, some years earlier some people had tried to unveil the truth about these tales by trying to open through a side of the dome, but they had not found anything. Dun Gwann told me that the passage would probably lead all the way round the dome, and he calmly encouraged me to go back and find out. He assured me that I would be safe as I was securely tied to the rope, so I plucked up some courage and went back in.

    The remaining matches accompanied me along the passage where it abruptly seemed to end, when I suddenly found myself treading on a mass of objects scattered beneath my feet. I felt around with my hands and my fingers came to something resting on the wall in front of me. The darkness was complete while I fumbled at the object to try and understand what it was. My fingers ran over two gaping holes… and then I felt what seemed to be a row of teeth! To my utter shock I recognized that I was holding a skull!

    Bones in secret passage - St Gregory church ŻejtunI will never forget the sound of crunching bones as, having let go of the skull with a scream, I turned on my heels and raced back to the faint safety of the light where I had come from. Distraught and agitated I told the others what I had found and left the rest to them.

    The incident devastated me at the time, as the fear of anything associated with death that had always lurked within me came out with a vengeance and engulfed me in a state of shock. An ugly rash broke out over my skin and it took me months to calm down completely. I remember my mum Michelina being enraged at my uncle who had allowed me to go down there even though he was aware of my phobia.

    From then on I rarely even mentioned this incident to anyone. And even though news of the discovery of the secret passages was quite a sensation back in 1969, I did not reveal to any of my school friends that I had played such an important role in their exposure, I don’t know why. Maybe I simply wanted to be left alone with the hope that one day I would forget this terrible experience. Yet I never really succeeded in doing this, and even though my parents and my brother are buried in the church’s cemetry, for many years I could not ever convince myself to return there. Though I live in the vicinity of the church itself, I’ve tried my best to always avoid going near it. It makes me feel uneasy.

    Grezzju Vella in front of St Gregory's churchThis is the first time that I have been in these passages since that fateful day 42 years ago… and this is the first time I’ve told the story in its entirety to someone from the media. But today I was determined to settle this long-standing debt that has ruled my life for so long and come to terms with the experience. It’s time to move on.”

    And with that, we moved out of the haunting passages. Each year, after Easter, a votive traditional procession culminates at this magnificent church which is endowed with distinguished culture, history and architecture. But few of the faithful who congregate for the procession probably know of the enigma waiting to be resolved, save for the few who remember hearing about the discovery all those years ago. A recently formed NGO bearing the name of Wirt iż-Żejtun has vowed to investigate further this unsolved mystery. Maybe finally the time will come for these souls to tell the story and then forever rest in peace.

    References

    (1) Ramaswamy S & Pace J. L, 1979. The medieval skeletal remains from St. Gregory’s Church at Żejtun (Malta) – Part 1 Paleopathological Studies in Archivio Italiano Di Anatomia E Di Embriologia, Vol. LXXXIV – Fasc. 1.

    (2) Ramaswamy S & Pace J. L, 1980. The medieval skeletal remains from St. Gregory’s Church at Żejtun (Malta) – Part 2 Anthropological Studies in Archivio Italiano Di Anatomia E Di Embriologia, Vol. LXXXV – Fasc. 1.

    (Note: An edited version of this article was published on FIRST magazine  - Issue: April 2011)

    2011.04.01 / no responses / Category: Malta Independent on Sunday - First magazine