The Chapel of St Anne ( mt, Il-Kappella ta' Sant'Anna) is a small

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church located in the village of

Qrendi Qrendi ( mt, Il-Qrendi) is a village in the Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 2752 people as of March 2014. It is located close to Mqabba, Żurrieq and Siggiewi. Within its boundaries are two well-known Neolithic temples called ...

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 ...

History

This chapel owns it origins to Giovanni Schembri who built it as a fulfillment to a vow he made during the

Great Siege of Malta The Great Siege of Malta ( Maltese: ''L-Assedju l-Kbir'') occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege lasted nearly four months, from 18 May to 13 September ...

of 1565. Schembri vowed to build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary should he and his family escape the perils of the Great Siege. Records from 1585 show that the chapel was in fact built and dedicated to the

Nativity of Mary The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of Mary, the Marymas or the Birth of the Virgin Mary, refers to a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus. The modern canon of scripture does not record Mary's bir ...

. Moreover, interesting to note is that the chapel was not mentioned in inquisitor

Pietro Dusina Pietro Dusina was an Italian Roman Catholic priest from Brescia who was the inquisitor and apostolic delegate to Malta between 1574 and 1575. Dusina was nominated inquisitor of Malta by Pope Gregory XIII on 3 July 1574, and he arrived on the island ...

's report of his apostolic visit to Malta in 1575 as the church was not built as yet however it is mentioned in 1598 as a 'recent building'. The church was blessed on September 6, 1589, by the parish priest of

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 ...

who was the parish priest of

as well since the parish of

was not yet established. The feast used to be celebrated with vespers on September 8. Another feast was celebrated in honor of

Saint Venera Saint Venera (''Veneranda, Veneria, Venerina, Parasceve'') is venerated as a Christian martyr of the 2nd century. Little is known of this saint. The date of her death is traditionally given as July 26, 143 AD. In the ''Catalogo Sanctorum'', com ...

, who appears in the titular painting. In 1796, the dedication of the church was changed from that of the Nativity of Mary to that of

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

. The reason for this is not known however, it may be that people started to refer to the church as St Anne's due to the image of St Anne appearing in the titular painting. That same year the chapel was restored by the initiative of the parish priest Reverend Anton Mizzi. Recently, the chapel was also restored by the parish priest Reverend Ray Toledo as part of the Qrendi Parish Millennium project.

Interior

The chapel has three altars, one in the middles and two side altars. The titular painting, from an unknown artist, depicts the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, St. Anne, St. John the Baptist, and St. Venera. "THE CHAPELS OF QRENDI"
''Qrendi Local Council''. Retrieved on 10 January 2017.

References

{{reflist 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Malta Qrendi National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands