Be the first to comment!Gozo remembers Bishop Nikol Cauchi on Good Friday
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Nicholas Joseph Cauchi, former Bishop emeritus of Gozo, was remembered today, on Good Friday, and saluted by a new composition in his honour.
B’Tislima lill-E.T. Mons. Isqof Nikol Cauchi, a newly-composed funerary march by locally renowned composer Ray Sciberras, was premiered by the Leone Band during the Good Friday procession which issued from the Gozo Cathedral Church, in Victoria.
Bishop Cauchi had allowed the Good Friday procession to be transferred back to the Gozo Cathedral, accompanied by the Leone Band, in 1968 from where it has been issuing each year, alternating between Good Friday and Palm Sunday.
The Good Friday procession from the Gozo Cathedral, this year, also featured the Fgura Scouts, apart from the Leone Band, together with the addition of several biblical figures representing the Passion of the Holy Christ. It also features the oldest set of Good Friday statues, dating back to the 18th century. Still surrounded by myths and legends, their origin is yet to be found, but studies show that they are truly the work of a skilful Sicilian artistic master, who made these statues not of papier-mâché as it was believed, but from a composition which includes fragments of marble and possibly lava, according to a southern-Italian tradition which was evolving in the post-Bernini era. They used to be carried in, what is to be, the first concept of a traceable Good Friday procession on the sister island. These are a few of the robed-statues according to the Spanish tradition that remain on the islands.
During the 19th century, these Good Friday statues used to be taken from the Cathedral to St George’s church, to be taken around in a procession, and returned thereafter. With Bishop Cauchi’s authorisation, in 1968, the St George’s then Parish and Basilica, started making its own set of statues.
Bishop Cauchi, hailed as Gozo’s spiritual father, served for 38 years as Bishop of Gozo, and passed away on November the 15th 2010.
Photographs by Leo Mario Haber
