Greeks ( el, Έλληνες, ''Ellines''; mt, Griegi) have a long presence in
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, which may lead back to ancient times. The archipelago was intensely
Hellenized
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
beginning in the 3rd century BC, a process which intertwined with the
Christianization of Malta after the 1st century AD. The
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
presence was overturned by the
Arab conquest of 870, and the surviving Greek community was
Islamified. Maltese Christianity of the
Byzantine Rite was only preserved in some parts of the country, being especially important in
Gozo. These groups formed the basis for a local branch of the
Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church may refer to:
* Eastern Orthodox Church
* Oriental Orthodox Churches
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
* State church of the Roman Empire
* True Orthodox church
See also
* Orthodox (di ...
, revived following
Norman conquest in the 1120s. Although marginalized by Catholicism, which became the dominant faith, a Greek-speaking Orthodox community survived into the 15th century.
Greek immigration was resumed in the 1520s, shortly before the establishment of
Hospitaller Malta
Hospitaller Malta, officially the Monastic State of the Order of Malta, and known within Maltese history as the Knights' Period ( mt, Żmien il-Kavallieri, "Time of the Knights"), was a polity which existed between 1530 and 1798 when the Mediter ...
. It comprised mainly refugees from the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, hundreds or thousands of whom escaped from
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
. They reestablished the Orthodox colony, presumed to have been placed under the
Archbishopric of Ohrid
The Archbishopric of Ohrid, also known as the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid
*T. Kamusella in The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe, Springer, 2008, p. 276
*Aisling Lyon, Decentralisation and the Management of Ethni ...
, but also included in their ranks Greek-speaking
Latin- and
Byzantine-Rite Catholics. Within fifty years, with the onset of
Counter-Reformation, the former community was pressured into merging with the latter two. By 1600, the Orthodox Greeks had formally abjured, but in various documented cases continued to practice their older rites. In tandem, the consolidated community of Catholic Greeks discarded its traditional center in
Birgu
Birgu ( mt, Il-Birgu , it, Vittoriosa), also known by its title Città Vittoriosa ("''Victorious City''"), is an old fortified city on the south side of the Grand Harbour in the South Eastern Region of Malta. The city occupies a promontory of ...
and moved its base to
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
, after which it became prone to assimilation into the
ethnic mainstream.
In the 17th century, the Orthodox presence was also reinforced by
Ottoman Greeks
Ottoman Greeks ( el, Ρωμιοί; tr, Osmanlı Rumları) were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), much of which is in modern Turkey. Ottoman Greeks were Greek Orthodox Christians who belonged to the Rum Millet (''Millet ...
taken as slaves by the Maltese
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
s, some of whom were themselves ethnic Greeks; there were also new waves of
Maniots
The Maniots or Maniates ( el, Μανιάτες) are the inhabitants of Mani Peninsula, located in western Laconia and eastern Messenia, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. They were also formerly known as Mainotes and the peninsula as ''Maina''.
...
and
Aetolia
Aetolia ( el, Αἰτωλία, Aἰtōlía) is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania.
Geography
The Achelous River separates Aetolia ...
ns. Though small in numbers, the resulting community participated in the propagation of
Greek nationalism
Greek nationalism (or Hellenic nationalism) refers to the nationalism of Greeks and Greek culture.. As an ideology, Greek nationalism originated and evolved in pre-modern times. It became a major political movement beginning in the 18th century, ...
and of the "
Greek Plan
The Greek Plan or Greek Project () was an early solution to the Eastern Question which was advanced by Catherine the Great in the early 1780s. It envisaged the partition of the Ottoman Empire between the Russian and Habsburg Empires followed ...
". Many local Greeks also supported the
French occupation of Malta, which closely preceded a
Franco–Ottoman war. During the period of
British colonization, the Maltese Greek community leader
Ioannis Papafis
Ioannis Papafis or Giovanni di Niccolò Pappaffy ( el, Ιωάννης Παπάφης; 1792 – 1886) was a Greek businessman and philanthropist, prominent for helping in the funding of the Greek War of Independence and in financing crucial sector ...
was a sponsor of the
Greek War of Independence. Greeks affiliated with either Catholicism or Orthodoxy remained present over the following centuries, though the latter community continued to be informally marginalized throughout the 19th century, and are now a small minority.
Early presence
Various archeological finds may suggest some connections between the
old Maltese civilization and the
Minoan civilization, followed by
Mycenaean Greece. In the 1920s,
biological anthropologist
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an e ...
L. H. Dudley Buxton proposed that the original inhabitants of
Malta Island
Malta is the largest of the three major islands that constitute the Maltese archipelago. It is sometimes referred to as Valletta for statistical purposes to distinguish the main island from the entire country. Malta is in the middle of the Medit ...
and
Gozo were
Cretan
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, an ...
immigrants. However, the
Ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
appear not to have included either island in their
colonization of the Mediterranean, perhaps owing to their lack of natural resources. They used Malta for commerce, but the archipelago was taken over and colonized by
Phoenicians
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
, then by
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
. Gozo is perhaps the mythical island of
Ogygia
Ogygia (; grc, Ὠγυγίη, Ōgygíē , or ''Ōgygíā'' ) is an island mentioned in Homer's ''Odyssey'', Book V, as the home of the nymph Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', Calypso detained Odysseus on Ogygi ...
, described in the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...
'', which may attest that groups of Mycenians once settled there. The main island was known in Greece under the name ''Melite'' (); one theory is that the name "Malta" is a derivative of the Greek word for "honey" (). A
Phoenician derivation has also been proposed.
Despite being under Carthaginian rule, Malta was culturally integrated by the
Hellenistic world
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
in the 3rd century BC, when it built strong commercial links with
Magna Graecia. Focusing on the finds at
Tas-Silġ
Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop on the south-east coast of the island of Malta, overlooking Marsaxlokk Bay, and close to the town of Żejtun. Tas-Silġ is a major multi-period sanctuary site with archaeological remains covering four thousand year ...
, scholar Antonio Tempio proposes that the archipelago was regularly visited by traders from
Pithekoūsai, which had a mixed Carthaginian–Greek populace. Greek influence was only reinforced after the
First Punic War, when Malta was annexed to the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
, later becoming part of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
alongside
Roman Greece
Greece in the Roman era describes the Roman conquest of Greece, as well as the period of Greek history when Greece was dominated first by the Roman Republic and then by the Roman Empire.
The Roman era of Greek history began with the Corinthian ...
. This was especially the case in Gozo, where archeological finds document the extensive circulation of
Ancient Greek coinage
The history of ancient Greek coinage can be divided (along with most other Greek art forms) into four periods: the Archaic, the Classical, the Hellenistic and the Roman. The Archaic period extends from the introduction of coinage to the Greek ...
. While
Punic
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
was still spoken locally into the 1st century AD and perhaps even later, it faced competition from both Latin and Greek (''see
Cippi of Melqart
The Cippi of Melqart are a pair of Phoenician marble cippi that were unearthed in Malta under undocumented circumstances and dated to the 2nd century BC. These are votive offerings to the god Melqart, and are inscribed in two languages, Ancie ...
'').
The Greek-speaking
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
held Malta from the 6th century AD, and, beginning in the 8th century, Maltese Christianity was organized under the
Byzantine Rite. Scant archeological evidence may suggest that local communities were under the command of ''
tourmarchoi'' representing the
Sicilian Theme, but this remains disputed. In circa 870, following the
islands' capture and annexation by the
Emirate of Sicily, some 3,000 men were reportedly killed, while 3,600 women and 5,000 children fell victim the
Arab slave trade
History of slavery in the Muslim world refers to various periods in which a slave trade has been carried out under the auspices of Arab peoples or Arab countries. Examples include:
* Trans-Saharan slave trade
* Indian Ocean slave trade
* Barbary s ...
. The remaining Greek community was persecuted, its bishop enslaved, and its church destroyed. Local Greeks were largely
converted to Islam
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
, but continued to speak their original language.
The period of Islamic conversion also witnessed the birth of
Maltese, which developed largely from
Maghrebi
Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Alge ...
and
Siculo-Arabic
Siculo-Arabic ( ar, الْلهجَة الْعَرَبِيَة الْصَقلِيَة), also known as Sicilian Arabic, is the term used for varieties of Arabic that were spoken in the Emirate of Sicily (which included Malta) from the 9th century ...
.
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Fall of Co ...
left "remarkably few" or "absolutely no traces" on this linguistic development. There is however evidence that a Christian church, probably Byzantine, still survived on Gozo, though it was cut off from contacts with other parts of Europe. An historical account originating with
Zakariya al-Qazwini
Zakariyya' al-Qazwini ( , ar, أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني), also known as Qazvini ( fa, قزوینی), born in Qazvin (Iran) and died 1283, was a Persian cosmographer and geographer of Arab ance ...
suggests that in the 11th century the
Catepanate of Italy
The Catepanate (or Catapanate) of Italy ( el, ''Katepaníkion Italías'') was a province of the Byzantine Empire from 965 until 1071. At its greatest extent, it comprised mainland Italy south of a line drawn from Monte Gargano to the Gulf of S ...
tried to restore Christian Byzantine rule over Malta. This attempt was thwarted when the Arabs agreed to emancipate their slaves, who joined the resistance. Nevertheless, the ethnic origin of these men remains unclear.
Norman-Byzantine and Rhodian diasporas
Following the
Norman conquest of the 1120s, Malta was integrated with the
County
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
, then the
Kingdom of Sicily, and as such included within the
Norman–Byzantine cultural sphere. The new rulers released and sent back to their homes those Christian slaves still present on the islands, but also brought with them a number of Greeks, who were disproportionately represented in the Norman–Sicilian navy. During the brief existence of a
Norman kingdom in Africa, Greek administrators participated in repressing
Arab piracy. A poem by a Greek exile to Malta, probably authored ca. 1150, laments that the population was still mostly Muslim, and commends the Normans for their efforts to convert them.
Upon the end of that campaign, which can be reliably dated to the 13th century, Maltese Arabs and Greek Muslims were generally converted to Catholicism. There is however evidence that at least some Maltese Greeks opted for the
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...
(''see
East–West Schism''). Some clandestine sanctuaries might be indicators that
Basilian monks
Basilian monks are Roman Catholic monks who follow the rule of Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea (330–379). The term 'Basilian' is typically used only in the Catholic Church to distinguish Greek Catholic monks from other forms of monastic li ...
, perhaps affiliated with Eastern Orthodoxy, were active in Malta. An obituary discovered in 2012 mentions a ''Nicólaos Protopapàs Máltes'' (died 1230). His Greek surname, which can be read as "
Protopope
A protopope, or protopresbyter, is a priest of higher rank in the Eastern Orthodox and the Byzantine Catholic Churches, generally corresponding to Western Christianity's archpriest or the Latin Church's dean.
History
The rights and duties of the ...
", could suggest that Orthodoxy had maintained an ecclesiastical structure. In the 1260s, Sicily and Malta became part of a personal empire built by
Charles I of Anjou. According to anthropologist Stefan Goodwin, at his stage "faltering religious pluralism still existed in the sense that Orthodox Christians,
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, and
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
still constituted a substantial minority of the population." Malta's native Greek Orthodoxy probably died out in the mid 15th century.
Other groups of Greeks appeared in that context. In July 1401, the
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...
(which included Sicily and Malta from 1409) banned the release of Greek,
Circassian,
Albanian,
Ruthenian,
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
and
Vlach
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...
slaves. From the 16th century on, most Greeks who arrived in Malta did so as a result of displacement by the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
(''see
Ottoman wars in Europe''). Following a
siege in 1522, the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
were chased out
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
and granted possession of Malta. Rhodian Greeks followed them there, numbering in the hundreds or as many as 3,000 to 5,000 individuals (up to 20% of the total population). Overall, most migrants were initially Orthodox—however, Rhodians most likely included
Latin- and
Byzantine-Rite Catholics.
Orthodox and Catholic Greeks from
Hospitaller Malta
Hospitaller Malta, officially the Monastic State of the Order of Malta, and known within Maltese history as the Knights' Period ( mt, Żmien il-Kavallieri, "Time of the Knights"), was a polity which existed between 1530 and 1798 when the Mediter ...
and Maltese-occupied
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
were granted the privilege of trading with Muslim states, and integrated commercially with the larger
Greek diaspora
The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia ( el, Ομογένεια, Omogéneia), are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus (excluding Northern Cyprus). Such places historically include Albania, North Macedonia, parts of ...
. In tandem, Greek seafarers contributed to the birth of Maltese
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
ing. Already in the 1530s, the archipelago was home to prosperous Greek Maltese merchants Sydero Metaxí and Stammato Galanti. Orthodox Rhodians settled in Malta-proper included priest Angelo Metaxí and the prosperous Fundomali family of
Birgu
Birgu ( mt, Il-Birgu , it, Vittoriosa), also known by its title Città Vittoriosa ("''Victorious City''"), is an old fortified city on the south side of the Grand Harbour in the South Eastern Region of Malta. The city occupies a promontory of ...
. Among the Catholic descendants of this Rhodian diaspora was the adventurer
Iacob Heraclid
Iacob Heraclid (or Eraclid; el, Ἰάκωβος Ἡρακλείδης; 1527 – November 5, 1563), born Basilicò and also known as Iacobus Heraclides, Heraclid Despotul, or Despot Vodă ("Despot the Voivode"), was a Greek Maltese soldier, adv ...
. Born at
Birkirkara in 1527, he claimed the thrones of
Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...
and
Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of masti ...
, and would eventually serve as
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...
of
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...
in the 1560s. Propagated and partly distorted by the Hospitallers, accounts of Heraclid's career have left traces in
Maltese literature
Maltese literature is any literature originating from Malta or by Maltese writers or literature written in the Maltese language.
This article will give an overview of the history of Maltese-language literature.
History
Written Maltese
As Ma ...
and historiography.
With four parish churches mentioned in early records, Birgu remained the center of Greek Rhodian immigration. In 1565, during the
Great Siege of Malta, Greeks from that town joined a militia company mainly staffed by Maltese locals. Following the Hospitaller relocation from Birgu to
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
, Greek converts were invited to the latter city, and were granted the
Church of St Nicholas. Despite being a Catholic state, Hospitaller Malta remained somewhat tolerant of the Orthodox presence and, by 1621, the Greek Orthodox community in the archipelago had established direct contacts with the
Patriarchate of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...
. It is likely that Malta and Gozo answered to the
Archbishopric of Ohrid
The Archbishopric of Ohrid, also known as the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid
*T. Kamusella in The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe, Springer, 2008, p. 276
*Aisling Lyon, Decentralisation and the Management of Ethni ...
, through a
suffragan located at
Agrigento
Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...
.
Inquisition and assimilation
During the
Counter-Reformation era, efforts to absorb this congregation into Catholicism became more systematic. Greeks who were still Orthodox made repeated pledges of union with Catholicism, as a Byzantine-Rite community, but these remained formal. In the 1570s, Cardinal
Giulio Antonio Santoro
Giulio Antonio Santoro (1580 – 28 September 1638) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cosenza (1624–1638). and the
Roman Inquisition
The Roman Inquisition, formally the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, respons ...
made a note that the Greek "heretics" were resisting such attempts, taking their
chrism
Chrism, also called myrrh, ''myron'', holy anointing oil, and consecrated oil, is a consecrated oil used in the Anglican, Assyrian, Catholic, Nordic Lutheran, Old Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Latter Day Saint churches in th ...
exclusively from their "Oriental prelate". In 1575 Birgu, there were 74 Greek Catholics. Their parish priest, Emmanuel Metaxí, angered Catholic supervisors by omitting references to ''
Filioque
( ; ) is a Latin term ("and from the Son") added to the original Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly known as the Nicene Creed), and which has been the subject of great controversy between Eastern and Western Christianity. It is a term ...
'' and ignoring the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
. Other Byzantine-Rite Greeks were prosecuted for similar offenses involving the calendar, prompting priest Constantin Sguro to ask advice from the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
. In one other case, the five daughters of a Greek priest were formally investigated by the Inquisition after accusations that they practiced witchcraft using his leftover chrism. In 1600, Metaxí bequeathed
Damascena Church to monks from the
Church of Sinai
The Church of Sinai is a Greek Orthodox autonomous church whose territory consists of St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, along with several dependencies. There is a dispute as to whether the church is fully autocepha ...
; unusually, this transfer was countersigned by the
Catholic Archbishop, Tomás Gargallo. The monks, who also catered to the needs of Greeks in
Cospicua
Cospicua ( mt, Bormla ), also known by its titles Città Cospicua or Civitas Cottonera, is a double-fortified harbour city in the South Eastern Region of Malta. Along with Birgu and Senglea, it is one of the Three Cities, located within the Gran ...
, were presumed to be Catholic converts, but later found to be omitting the ''Filioque''.
The presence of Greeks was temporarily reinforced by other factors. By 1580, Hospitaller Malta was organizing privateer raids on
Ottoman Tripolitania and the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
, attracting some Catholic Greek volunteers—perhaps as many as 5% of the total privateers. This trend was still observable in the 1630s, when Greeks made up a sizable portion of the Maltese seafaring community, itself estimated at 20% of the active population. During the
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa ...
, Malta developed as a slave-trading hub, primarily supplied with Muslim captives. Between 1550 and 1600, some 20% of the captives were Christians, many of them Greeks; the policy was to release most non-Muslims, but in practice some Greeks were still kept as slaves, in perpetuity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, sailors under the
Maltese cross were regularly attacking ships manned by sailors from
Ottoman Greece
Most of the areas which today are within modern Greece's borders were at some point in the past part of the Ottoman Empire. This period of Ottoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greek War of Independence t ...
, since these were generally Orthodox (and therefore "schismatic"). In various cases, Greek captives began declaring themselves Catholic to obtain release. In 1674, the Holy See gave its permission for the sale of Orthodox slaves, provided they were Ottoman subjects.
Also in the 1670s, some hundreds of
Maniots
The Maniots or Maniates ( el, Μανιάτες) are the inhabitants of Mani Peninsula, located in western Laconia and eastern Messenia, in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. They were also formerly known as Mainotes and the peninsula as ''Maina''.
...
are believed to have settled in the Maltese archipelago. According to Buxton, Maniot "racial" influence was especially striking in and around
Żurrieq
Żurrieq ( mt, Iż-Żurrieq ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta. It is one of the oldest towns in the country, and it has a population of 11,823 inhabitants as of March 2014. The first documentation about it being a parish dates back to ...
. Meanwhile, Birgu's Catholic Greek community declined even more, and became small enough to be served by the priests of
Borgo. The Catholic Greek parishioners of Valletta are not mentioned in the 1680s census (or ''Status Animarum'') for unclear reasons, but probably had a more thriving community. However, this group became especially prone to assimilation, by adopting the Latin Rite and, with time, Maltese identity. Already before 1670, Maltese graduates of the
Pontifical Greek College frequently opted for priesthood into the Latin Rite. By 1708, there were only nine Byzantine-Rite Catholics of young age registered in Valletta; Latinized Greeks of that age included
Gioacchino Loretta, a noted Baroque painter.
According to historian Katerina Papakonstantinou, before 1723 "captains from
Messolonghi
Missolonghi or Messolonghi ( el, Μεσολόγγι, ) is a municipality of 34,416 people (according to the 2011 census) in western Greece. The town is the capital of Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit, and the seat of the municipality of Iera Polis ...
formed the only Greek presence on the island
f Malta, by which time "the flag of Malta was often flown by Greek ships, especially those from Messolonghi, in order to provide them easy access to Western European ports." Later in the 18th century, Malta became the destination of sailors from throughout the
Aegean Islands. The temporary presence of a Greek colony in southwest
Mdina during that age has given its name to the neighboring "
Greeks Gate
The Greeks Gate ( mt, Bieb il-Griegi or ; it, Porta dei Greci; la, Porta Grecorum) is a gate into the fortified city of Mdina, Malta. The gate was originally built in the medieval period, and its outer portal was built in the Baroque style i ...
". The lush area outside
Rabat is traditionally known as ''Wied ir-Rum'', translated by
Giovanni Francesco Abela
Giovanni Francesco Abela (1582–1655) was a Maltese noble who in the early 17th century wrote an important work on Malta, ''Della Descrittione di Malta isola nel Mare Siciliano: con le sue antichità, ed altre notizie'', "description of Malta ...
as ''Valle de' Christiani Greci'' ("Valley of the Greek Christians"; ''see
Rûm
Rūm ( ar, روم , collective; singulative: Rūmī ; plural: Arwām ; fa, روم Rum or Rumiyān, singular Rumi; tr, Rûm or , singular ), also romanized as ''Roum'', is a derivative of the Aramaic (''rhπmÈ'') and Parthian (''frwm'') ...
'').
Napoleonic era
Beginning in the 1760s, Hospitaller Malta became interesting to the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, which increased its presence in the Mediterranean and even attempted to impose its rule. A
Greek-Russian envoy, Antonio Psaro, negotiated an understanding between the Order and the Russians, integrating Malta with the "
Greek Plan
The Greek Plan or Greek Project () was an early solution to the Eastern Question which was advanced by Catherine the Great in the early 1780s. It envisaged the partition of the Ottoman Empire between the Russian and Habsburg Empires followed ...
" before 1789. Such maneuvers enhanced the rift between the Hospitallers and the
French Republic. In June 1798, a
French occupation of Malta ended Hospitaller rule. Maltese Greeks were reportedly enthusiastic about this development, believing it a prelude to the liberation of Greece.
On
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's orders, the 2,000 slaves still present in Malta were all manumitted. In his proclamations, he thanked the Greeks for their loyalty, and banned Latin-Rite priests from ever officiating in "Greek Churches". However, an explicit order was given to execute Greeks who maintained relations with the Russian Empire. While the French
engaged the Ottomans in battle, an attempt to revive the Hospitallers as an Orthodox-and-Catholic order was made by
Paul I of Russia (''see
Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller
The Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller is a collection of charitable organisations claiming continuity with the Russian Orthodox grand priory of the Order of Saint John. The order emerged when Malta was captured by Napoleon in 1798 dur ...
''). Participating in this reconciliation,
Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Flachslanden
Jean-Baptiste is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following:
Persons
* Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King o ...
proposed to create a Hospitallers' ''
Langue'' for Greek expatriates. However, his project also called for moving the Order's headquarters to
Austrian Dalmatia.
500 Greeks and some "disloyal Maltese" still assisted the beleaguered
French Revolutionary Army
The French Revolutionary Army (french: Armée révolutionnaire française) was the French land force that fought the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipme ...
during the
uprising of September 1798. There followed an occupation by the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...
, which imposed a
Malta Protectorate
Malta Protectorate ( it, Protettorato di Malta, mt, Protettorat ta' Malta) was the political term for Malta when it was ''de jure'' part of the Kingdom of Sicily but under British protection. This protectorate existed between the capitulation of ...
(nominally under the
Kingdom of Naples). During this time, Ottoman Greeks were among the soldiers of fortune taken to serve at
Fort Ricasoli
Fort Ricasoli ( mt, Forti Rikażli) is a bastioned fort in Kalkara, Malta, which was built by the Order of Saint John between 1670 and 1698. The fort occupies a promontory known as Gallows' Point and the north shore of Rinella Bay, commanding th ...
; they were then participants in the
Froberg mutiny
The Froberg mutiny was a mutiny within the British armed forces staged between 4 and 12 April 1807 at Fort Ricasoli, on the island of Malta, then a British Protectorate, by the Froberg Regiment. The regiment had been formed using dubious methods ...
of April 1807. The revolt was violently suppressed, but not before attempts at mediation involving local Greek priests.
With the establishment of the
Crown Colony of Malta
The Crown Colony of the Island of Malta and its Dependencies (commonly known as the Crown Colony of Malta or simply Malta) was the British colony in the Maltese islands, today the modern Republic of Malta. It was established when the Malta Pr ...
within the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
, Orthodox Greeks again had a noted presence in the islands. In 1816, they founded
Saint George Church of Valletta, re-purposing a regular 17th-century building. The
Church Mission Society noted that, between 1810 and 1819, the number of Greek Orthodox "foreigners" in Malta had declined from 12,000 (the largest minority, ahead of 7,000
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
), to a "very small number". The Catholic parishioners who identified as Greeks were a similarly minor presence. In 1806, only 76 individuals registered with Byzantine Catholic churches anywhere in the archipelago.
With the end of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
came a regeneration of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
wheat trade, and Greek-run enterprises became its major players, setting up representations in Maltese ports. Greek community life experienced a small revival during the
Greek War of Independence, when events such as the
Chios massacre
The Chios massacre (in el, Η σφαγή της Χίου, ) was a catastrophe that resulted to the death, enslavement, and refuging of about four-fifths of the total population of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman troops, during the ...
pushed some, including the shipowner and political conspirator
Alexandros Kontostavlos
Alexandros Kontostavlos ( el, Αλέξανδρος Κοντόσταυλος; 1789, Chios – 1865, Athens) was a Greek banker, magnate and politician.
Biography
Konstavlos was born on the island of Chios in 1789 and descended from a noble fa ...
, to seek refuge on the Maltese islands. The newly proclaimed
Hellenic Republic managed to set up a consulate in Malta, but it remained largely inactive. In that context, one particularly important Greek migrant was the broker
Ioannis Papafis
Ioannis Papafis or Giovanni di Niccolò Pappaffy ( el, Ιωάννης Παπάφης; 1792 – 1886) was a Greek businessman and philanthropist, prominent for helping in the funding of the Greek War of Independence and in financing crucial sector ...
, originally from
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, who had moved to Malta in 1818. Until his death in 1886, Papafis contributed significantly to the local society; he also provided financial aid for the Hellenic Republic, and later for the
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label= Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, wh ...
.
Modern communities
British rule introduced toleration for Greek Orthodox customs, but Catholicism was preserved as the privileged religion. A controversy erupted in the 1840s, when Greek Orthodox priests began wearing their
vestment
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religion, especially by Eastern Churches, Catholics (of all rites), Anglicans, and Lutherans. Many other groups also make use of liturgical garments; this ...
s outside church, testing an older customary prohibition. Greece intervened to protect that right, but the
First Russell ministry
Whig Lord John Russell led the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1846 to 1852.
History
Following the split in the Tory Party over the Corn Laws in 1846 and the consequent end of Sir Robert Peel's second governm ...
sided with Maltese Catholics. The Catholic Greeks, meanwhile, no longer ordained local priests, relying on envoys from the
Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. Their two churches in Valletta, St Nicholas and the new
Damascene Church, had by then been reassigned to Latin confraternities. Some Greeks joined other spiritual communities: in 1831,
American Congregationalist records noted the existence in Malta of at least one family of Greek affiliates, one of whom helped direct the effort to establish missions in Greece.
By the 1880s, Greeks from the islands had joined in the
Maltese migration to the
Khedivate of Egypt
The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ota, خدیویت مصر ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which br ...
. British reports of the period claim that Greek Maltese settlers in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
were often engaged in criminal activities. When the
‘Urabi revolt reached the city in June 1882, Maltese Greeks were among its earliest victims (''see
Bombardment of Alexandria
The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882.
Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of ...
''). There were various instances of Greek migration to Malta, including, in the 1880s, the Orthodox Giovanni Dacoutros of
Santorini. He founded a successful business which relied on imported
Greek wine
Greece is one of the oldest wine- producing regions in the world and among the first wine-producing territories in Europe. The earliest evidence of Greek wine has been dated to 6,500 years ago , while other families of immigrants (Colombos, Grech, Marich, Sorottos, etc.) dealt mainly in tobacco. The British census of 1911 recorded 36 males and 39 female Greek nationals among the recent immigrants to the Colony.
In 1915, scholar
Raymond Janin
Raymond Janin, A.A. (31 August 1882 – 12 July 1972) was a French Byzantinist. An Assumptionist priest, he was also the author of several significant works on Byzantine studies
Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanitie ...
still noted the existence of "small colony" of Byzantine-Rite Catholic Greeks in Malta. He counted this group alongside similar communities of
Grikos and
Arbëreshë Arbën/Arbër, from which derived Arbënesh/Arbëresh originally meant all Albanians, until the 18th century. Today it is used for different groups of Albanian origin, including:
* Arbër (given name), an Albanian masculine given name
* Arbëresh ...
in the
Italian Peninsula,
Cargèse
Cargèse (; or ; it, Cargese ; el, Καργκέζε, Kargkéze) is a village and ''commune'' in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 27 km north of Ajaccio. , the commune had a population ...
, and
French North Africa
French North Africa (french: Afrique du Nord française, sometimes abbreviated to ANF) is the term often applied to the territories controlled by France in the North African Maghreb during the colonial era, namely Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. I ...
, estimating the total number at 25,000. The Damascene church was returned to them in 1934, but was then heavily damaged during the
bombing raids on Malta. Orthodox Greeks still maintained a chapel in the 1950s, but it reportedly had no attending priest. According to the Catholic cleric Giorgio Schirò, this issue prompted many more Orthodox to join his Byzantine-Rite community.
The present-day non-assimilated Greek presence in Malta remains small. An informal estimate for 2012 placed the total number of Greeks in Malta at 20 families or less. The Orthodox community, comprising some 50 people in 2010, was allocated to the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy (and Malta from until the creation of the Exarchate of Malta in 2021), officially the Sacred Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Exarchate of Southern Europe ( it, Sacra Arcidiocesi Ortodossa d'Italia ed Esar ...
until January 2021, when a Maltese Excharcate was created. Catholic Byzantine-Rite Greeks are mainly parishioners of the Damascene Church. In 2012, this was served by a non-Greek priest, George Mifsud Montanaro, and affiliated with the
Melkite Greek Catholic Church (
Diocese of Galilee). In July 2015, members of the communities and temporary migrants from Greece protested alongside
Moviment Graffitti in Valletta, showing support for the
anti-austerity movement in Greece
The anti-austerity movement in Greece involved a series of demonstrations and general strikes that took place across the country. The events, which began on 5 May 2010, were provoked by plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerit ...
.
Notes
References
{{Immigration to Malta
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...