One of the oldest icons

Between 1523 and 1530, from the departure from Rhodes, the Knights roamed the Mediterrenean and the icon travelled with them to Candia (Crete), Messina, Civitavecchia, Rome, Viterbo and Nice. They arrived in Malta in 1530 with the icon, and all their treasures of the Order of St John. Grand Master Villiers de l’Isle Adam placed it in the Church of St. Catherine in Borgo del Castello, which today is the city of Vittoriosa. It remained in this church until 1587, when in a most solemn transition, it crossed the Harbour on one of the most beautiful galleys of the Order, to the new town of Valletta. It was placed in the newly built Greek church dedicated to Our Lady of Damascus, where it could be venerated.

Grand Master Jean de la Valette was a great and fervent devotee of the Virgin Mary under this title. When on 7th September 1565, the end of the Great Siege, the defetaed Turkish forces fled to their ships to leave Malta. The heroic Grand Master followed by the Knights and the Maltese victors, walked in a spontaneous procession towards the church where the icon was venerated in Birgu to sing a hymn of thanks and praise to God infront of the icon. That day Grand Master La Valette left his hat and sword on the altar steps at the foot of the icon as a sign of gratitude and thanksgiving. This event was engraved on a marble plaque by Grand Master Emanuel de Rohan, following the church’s the war it was re-built as the one that still stands today.