During this month we celebrate the communion of saints and commemorate the faithful departed. The Priory’s Charnel is still in use and it enjoys a significant dose of devotion from the locals who have their departed loved ones buried here. It is also the burial place of the Carmelite Friars, Secular Carmelites and lay people. It’s a gem to visit due to its architecture, marble tombstones and the sense of peace it conveys.

Recently, the burial site was renovated and decorated with new lighting systems. Opening hours in November are from 7am to 5pm on a daily basis. On Mondays and Fridays prayers for the deceased and Mass is celebrated in the Charnel at 5pm. During the year the Charnel is open to allow people to pay their respects to their dearly departed on Saturdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Easter and New Year.

Anastasio Cuschieri, the Carmelite who served God as a religious priest and Provincial to Carmelites, known in the country as “il-Poeta tal-Madonna u l-Kelma Maltija”, Senator in the first and second legislative assembly of the Maltese Parliament and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Malta, is buried in this Charnel. His tomb respects his wishes and is marked only with a simple cross. Perhaps an important moment in the history of the Charnel was the exhumation of the remains of a saintly friar, Fr Avertanus Fenech, by Archbishop Michael Gonzi on November 25, 1968. His remains now rest in the Church.

For the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed we had the celebration of Vespers in the Charnel on November 1 followed by the traditional Maltese “Ikla tal-Erwieħ”. All proceedings from this traditional supper were donated to charity in support of the Carmelite Province’s project to welcome in one of our friaries refugees fleeing their country due to violence and persecution. We would like to thank all those who participated in this event, and for the sum of 500 Euros raised for this noble cause.

This year marks also the first centenary of Thomas Merton’s birth day. As a trappist monk, prolific writer of bestsellers on spirituality and mysticism Merton marked a new way of exploring the mystic phenomenon in the Twentieth Century. His experience and writings promoted dialogue between Christian mysticism and the mysticism of the Far East mainly through contact with Zen Buddhism and encounters with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As a monk he recaptured again the prophetic dimension of the ascetic life, rethinking and living it in a new way through his involvement as an activist for world peace mainly by voicing protests as a prophetic mystic on political and social issues of his time.

The Carmelite Institute Malta in collaboration with the Society of Christian Doctrine, supported by the Thomas Merton Centre in Bellarmine University, is joining the worldwide celebrations to commemorate Merton and his legacy. A two day seminar will be held on November 21-22 at the Mdina Carmelite Priory offering an opportunity to rediscover Merton anew as an untiring wayfarer and explorer of the deepest aspirations of humankind.

There are still some places available to participate in this seminar. Applications to the seminar through our website.