A new Passion statue that is to be inaugurated for this year’s Holy Week is on display in St George’s Basilica until tomorrow evening, Friday, the 30th of March.

The new wooden statue of Christ crowned with thorns, popularly known as L-Accjomu from the Latin words “Ecce Homo” pronounced by Pilate, is once again the fine work of Gozitan sculptors Michael and his son Adonai Camilleri Cauchi, based in Nadur.

Carved in utile wood, the life-size statue shows the Suffering Lord, only moments after his scourging, donning a red robe, crowned with thorns, standing with his hands bound and a sceptre of cane in one hand.

Today and tomorrow the public may visit the Chapel of Jesus and Mary inside St George’s Basilica to admire the artistic beauty of this new work of art in its present state before the phase of polychromatic coating. It will now replace an older statue as part of the processional set for the oldest Penitential Good Friday Procession in Gozo, which this year will take place on April 6, the liturgical commemoration of Our Lord’s Death.

Prior to the existing papiér-mâche statue, made by Alfred and Michael Camilleri Cauchi in 1976, the Basilica had two earlier statues of the Ecce Homo: the first one was a small statue dating back to the early nineteenth century and now kept at St James’ church in Victoria, while the second one, probably sculpted by Sicilian slaves, is currently being restored in Malta by Recoop as part of the ERDF-funded project of Fondazzjoni Belt Victoria and will later be on display in the new museum.

The third statue in a traditional Passion set is also know as Tal-Porpra, since it represents Christ wearing a red robe, which emphasises his regality, notwithstanding the blood-stained course of his Passion. St John, in his Gospel narrative of the last few hours Our Lord’s life, portrays him as the Suffering King, whose glory is visible even in his suffering and pain.

Besides the main figure of Christ, the new statue is composed also of symbols which represent the condemnation to death by the Roman Procurator, after having washed his hands in an attempt to distance himself from the Jews’ thirst for innocent blood.

The small Roman plinth on Jesus’ side is the work of carpenter Ino M. Attard, who, together with George Francis Vella, secretary of the Good Friday Committee, saw to the commission and its actualisation.

For the last few years, the Good Friday Committee within St George’s Basilica, which is responsible for the Penitential and Devotional Good Friday Procession, has been working on this ambitious project of replacing some of the present statues in the Passion set with new original ones made of wood and more in line with Pietru Pawl Azzopardi’s masterpiece: the miraculous Holy Crucifix made in 1848, which is the focus of the whole event.

A detail of this major work of art has just featured on the front cover of latest volume in the series Kullana Kulturali. Another important work in the set is Xandru Farrugia’s wooden statue of the Dead Christ before burial. The Basilica now has three new statues in this set, all made in wood by the Camilleri Cauchi father and son.

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