Next Sunday in Gozo, Victoria and Qala will celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In Victoria it will be celebrated at the Franciscan conventual church, Victoria.

The procession with the statue of the Immaculate Conception, will leave the church at around 5.45pm accompanied by the La Stella Band of Victoria, with the performance of religious hymns, along the streets of Victoria.

A feast to the Immaculate Conception of Mary is celebrated in Victoria every year on December the 8th. The feast dates back to 1663 when a Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception was founded in the Franciscan conventual church, to help in the organisation of the mentioned feast.

In 1698 a wooden statue of Our Lady representing the Immaculate Conception was used in a procession.

In Qala the the Feast of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated with a concelebrated Mass in the morning at the Immaculate Conception sanctuary.

The traditional pilgrimage of motorcycles from Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary normally gets underway at 1.30pm. The motorcycles will be blessed and mementos will be distributed to the participants.

The procession with the statue of the Virgin Mary will leave the church at 5pm accompanied by the Ite ad Joseph Band of Qala.

Officially, Qala’s parish church is not only dedicated to St. Joseph, but also to the Immaculate Conception.

All three churches of Qala are dedicated to this favoured appellation of Our Lady, for even the church of Tal-BIat carries the same title.

This unique curiosity emphasises the strong bond that the village has with the Immaculate Conception.

This bond was first cast in the early 17th century at the Sanctuary, where a feast is still celebrated every December the 8th.

File photos

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