Home
 1900th Anniversary of Saint Paul’s Arrival in Rome Scott 304 and 307 (1961) Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin has had a busy couple of weeks. The Daily Email on January 26 looked at his visit to Denmark to celebrate the 1200th anniversary of Christianity in that Scandinavian country. This past weekend, he was on the island of Malta to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Malta. His homily at the Mass he celebrated called attention to an important feast on the island that falls on February 10: the Feast of the Shipwreck of Saint Paul. The two stamps at the top of the page are from the six-stamp set issued in 1961 when Vatican City commemorated the 1900th anniversary of Saint Paul’s arrival in Rome. These stamps present a map tracing Saint Paul's journey from Caesarea to Rome, including his unexpected stop on the island of Malta. In the year 60 AD, Paul was being transported to Rome to stand trial before the Roman Court. Enroute, the ship carrying him beached during a fierce storm, in an area in the northeast region of Malta known today as Saint Paul’s Bay. The accounts of this event are presented in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 27-28). These passages tell us that when Paul and his fellow shipmates reached the shore, islanders helped them and gathered wood for a fire. A poisonous snake emerged from the firewood and bit Saint Paul. The natives expect the bite would kill him; however, he was not affected by the bite, which was taken as a sign of his holiness by the villagers. Three months after the shipwreck, Saint Paul once again set sail and would eventually arrive in Rome, where he was martyred around the year 64/65 AD.  Collegiate Parish Church of St Paul's Shipwreck Photo by Continentaleurope From Wikimedia Commons, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license The Shipwreck of Saint Paul is considered one of the most important events in the history of Malta, and marks the historical foundation of Christianity on the island. Each year, on February 10, the country celebrates a national holiday in remembrance. In the capital city of Valletta is the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck. Built in the 1570s, it houses a wooden statue of the saint that is carried in procession through the town on the feast day. The importance of this event in the history of Malta is memorialized on stamps issued by the country. The National Postal Museum article in the References displays one of the stamps. First released in 1899 (Malta, Scott 18), the stamp depicts a painting from the Church of Saint Paul’s Shipwreck showing the saint on the shore, with the sinking ship in the background and other survivors swimming towards land. The stamp presented in the article is the reissued stamp from 1919 (Malta, Scott 65). REFERENCES |
