~ St John’s Tombstones: a unique heritage

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The marble tombstones that form the uniquely colourful marble floor of St John’s Co-Cathedral are a unique heritage rich in artistic beauty and symbolism.

There are 378 tombstones in St John’s, as well as four small inscriptions or plaques commemorating Knights of the Order who did not die in Malta. Only two designs are repeated, those of relatives of Grand Master Carafa which also bear a strong resemblance to his funerary monument in the chapel of the Langue of Italy.

The tombstones were not part of the original design of the church. When St John’s Conventual Church was inaugurated in 1577, it lacked the gilding, the carvings, the sculptures, the paintings by Mattia Preti and the tombstones. It was a very simple, bare church, quite impossible to imagine today.

The Knights that fell during the 1565 Great Siege were originally buried in Fort St Angelo but were later re-interred in the St John’s cemetery which formed part of the church’s precincts on the Merchants’ Street side, right from the beginning.

It must be remembered that in Catholic theology, there is a strong belief in the bodily resurrection of Christians to join the Risen Christ, which led to the tradition of burying people near or even inside a church, in order to be close to Christ on the Day of Resurrection.

The earliest record of a person being buried in St John’s was around 1606, some 25 years after the church was opened. The tombstones, dating from the early 17th century to the early 19th century, are a short treatise on the history of art, ranging from the Mannerist period to the early and then high Baroque, and later to the neo-classical period. One can actually trace the evolution of styles through the tombstones at St John’s Co-Cathedral.

The early, or Mannerist, period presents tombstones with a carpet-like motif around the perimeter and the inscription in the middle. As Baroque took hold, and as the church began to be embellished with the Grand Masters’ monuments, the tombstones started to resemble monuments laid flat on the ground. Late in the 17th century and early in the 18th, the neo-Classical style started to become evident very often as a simpler design of a sarcophagus surmounted by a coat of arms.

There is no comparable example in other churches in Europe because they either tend to have tombstones from a longer range of time, or else the tombstones are in one style only.

These Baroque tombstones are full of movement, one of their most interesting and intriguing characteristics being their eloquent symbolic language, much of which was lost and is being re-discovered through study. Not just the obvious image of skeletons, hour glasses and Father Time, referring to the inevitability of death. Different flowers have their own significance, while colour has an important role, for example, skeletons’ bones are different shades of grey, not white, as no human is completely pure. On some occasions the figures even go over the borders of the tombstone, as if overshadowing them.

The tombstones portray several types of weapons that would have been carried off in battle as war trophies – in fact they feature in 375 of the tombstones. So the message here is clearly one of military triumph, often of one religion over another. Yet religious symbols, like the crucifix or dove, are absent. One explanation was that many of these marbles were plundered from monuments in North Africa, therefore it would have been sacrilegious to use pagan stones for sacred symbols. Another version indicates that religious symbols are missing since this was the Conventual Church of the Order of St John which was caught in a power struggle with the local bishops, therefore gave military symbols importance over religiosity.

Although there is a profusion of skeletons, strangely enough the end result is not macabre but celebratory: death is the moment of salvation and only the body is being returned to the ground.

Some other symbols visitors might want to look out for are cherubs holding laurel wreaths and palm fronds, symbols of victory and martyrdom respectively. There are also rosary beads – the Knights were very dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary and she was often asked to intervene to God on their behalf before a battle. Obelisks represent eternal life, when death is seen not as the end of life but as the beginning of life in glory, while garlands of fruit and flowers, symbolise the abundant virtues of the deceased..

The visitor will also come across allegories: Minerva, goddess of war and wisdom, dressed in armour bearing the eight-pointed cross, the allegory of the virtues of the Order, combines classical mythology with Catholic symbols in a Catholic Co-Cathedral! The image of a woman holding a mirror is the allegory of truth that is revealed with the passage of time.

The tombstones in St John’s also reflect the Order’s hierarchic fixations. Only Knights Grand Cross, or at least those who had achieved special honours in battles involving the Order, were buried in the church. The others were all buried in three communal graves underneath the Bartolott Crypt, directly beneath the Oratory and within its foundations.

The positioning of the tombstones was similarly strictly hierarchical. Bishops face the high altar, where the tomb of Camarasa, Prior of the church, is fortunately covered by the protective carpet today, as its main feature is a bishop’s mitre which, unlike all the other symbols in the church, is not embedded in the tombstone but raised. The other two bishops who are buried are Alpheran de Bussan and the Maltese bishop Imbroll.

The floor of St John’s has sometimes been called a roll call of the noble families of Europe before the French Revolution. Moving sideways from the centre of the church, right at the top left-hand corner, next to the Chapel of the Italian Langue (near the place where the Carafa Madonna is today venerated), is the tomb of a Medici, with the characteristic coat of arms emblazoned with balls. There is also a Grimaldi from the ruling family of Monaco.

The inscriptions on each tombstone records the achievements of the deceased, sometimes in humorous terms, along with plea for prayers for his soul.
The centre of the nave is reserved for those who were considered to be most worthy of honour, especially those who were victorious in battle.

Such is the case of Jacques de Fouille d’Escranville, who died in 1703. The tombstone recalls his military achievements more than any other feature. Appointed Captain General of the Order’s galleys, he furnished a galley at his own expense. In battle, he captured many enemy ships and in fact, his epitaph has a galley as its background.

Nearby is the tombstone of Fra Louis de Fleurigny, who died in 1716. This shows the flagship of the Turkish fleet aflame, thanks to his military skills. The battle flags and the weapons on this tombstone are those of the Turks, a clear symbol of the Knight’s victory.

Other notable Knights are buried in the church. Mattia Preti is buried in a communal grave, while architect Romano Carapecchia, who designed some of Valletta’s churches and also some of the tombstones, is buried in the Bartolott Crypt.

Fra Ipolito Malaspina, an incredibly powerful relative of the Grimaldis, (who was also responsible for bringing Caravaggio to Malta), and a Knight Grand Cross of the Italian Langue who died in 1629, is buried in the chapel of the Italian Langue, as is Fra Francesco Sylos, who paid for the entire decoration of the chapel.

Many Maltese do not know that included among the tombstones is one of a Maltese man. This is Giuseppe Nicola Zammit, a Maltese lawyer of civil and pontifical law who died in 1823. He was of noble birth but was not a Knight. His recently restored tomb is by the wall in the chapel of the Langue of Auvergne.

Yet another tombstone, again in the centre of the nave, is that of Fra Giovanni Brancaccio, who died in 1686. His epitaph speaks of his chivalrous role in the Order. He was the Captain General of the galleys and also the admiral of the Italian Langue and the prior of Santo Stefano. His tombstone is remarkable for on it one can see a half-formed skeleton, in that while the head is skeletal, the rest of the limbs still have flesh. The body itself is wrapped in a shroud.

The Order often commissioned known marble artisans to enhance the decoration of their church and cover the vaults with marble monuments. Some settled here for good with their families, or after getting married to a Maltese girl. Foreign marble workers who had not settled in Malta could either execute the work here from imported marble slabs or do all the work abroad in their workshop to be later dispatched for assembly, inlaying, and decoration. When a fairly large commitment was involved, it was preferable to settle here, at least till all the work involved was accomplished. These procedures enabled the marble workers to check on the overall progress of the projected work and its maintenance.

We also know the names of at least two of the sculptors of the tombstones. Vitale Covati was a sculptor from Messina, who came to Malta in 1645 and worked at St John’s for 28 years. He prepared several tombstones but is more known for his reredos of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, formerly the Chapel of the Madonna of Philhermos. Bartholomeo Bambace, another sculptor from Palermo, worked with him and also made several of the tombstones in St John’s.

The arrangement of the tombstones in St John’s today is not the way in which they were originally placed. When the Knights were expelled from Malta by Napoleon in 1798, although the Baroque style was still the rage in Malta (apparently it still is, as can be seen from the street furniture used in the festi – it seems somehow well-suited to the Maltese character), the French and later the British brought over the neo-Classical style. Baroque began to be looked upon as too extravagant, frivolous and lacking in spirituality.

It was Giuseppe Hyzler, (1787-1858), the leader of the Nazarene Movement, who was entrusted with the ‘redecoration’ of St John’s Co-Cathedral for as their name implies, the Nazarenes were not just an artistic movement but also a religious one, favouring purification and simplification. In 1833 hey began removing decorative elements from churches and re-arranging the tombstones. In St John’s it started with the chapel of the Langue of France, from which the Nazareners removed many baroque elements, however, this resulted in a national uproar, and Hyzler was stopped.

With regard to the tombstones, Hyzler re-positioned them in a more symmetrical order. This re-arrangement, however, was not as drastic as people think. Pietro Paolo Caruana had documented the floor of St John’s before Hyzler started his re-arrangement exercise. This documentation not only includes the layout of the floor but also contains paintings of all the tombstones. Sometimes these are important for consultation purposes, as later restorations may have altered the colour of some of the marble that was used.

The marble used in St John’s came from a variety of countries and places. Most of the red marble came from Messina (Diaspro di Sicilia) but the black came from Belgium (Nero del Belgio). Yellow came from Siena (Giallo di Siena) while other types of red came from France (Rosso di Francia). Other marble came from Africa and also from Spain (Broccatello di Spagna). Obviously, the white marble came from Carrara.

The tombstones were not made for the very heavy traffic they receive today and have suffered over the years therefore the tombstones are continuously being restored. In order to slow down the damage, inevitable over time, a special protective carpet has been installed for visitors to follow.

The marble is very thin – only some 5 mm in depth – and since it is a veneer, it becomes as brittle as glass. In addition, the glue that lies at the bottom interacts with the damp of the ground and often becomes loose. That is why stiletto heels are strictly prohibited in St John’s.

References:
– A Note on the St John Co-Cathedral Marble Tombstones: The Artisans, Foreign and Maltese – John Debono http://maltahistory.eu5.net/mh3/19996.html
– St John’s Tombstones: protecting a unique heritage – Noel Grima http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2010-01-17/news/st-johns-tombstones-protecting-a-unique-heritage-269064/)