THE CHURCH OF PORTO SALVO

ALSO KNOWN AS ST. PHILIP CHURCH

   The first church was built in 1596, and was dedicated to the Visitation of Our Lady to Saint Elizabeth, mother of St. John the Baptist.

    The first rector to the church was Rev. Leonardo Felici. In the church there were five altars dedicated to:

  The Main Altar and Titular to the Visitation of Our Lady to S. Elizabeth;  Our Lady of the Rosary; St. Andrew and St. Anthony of Padova.

       In 1661, Fr.Xmun Schembri, Fr. Evangelista Gandolfo, and two deacons - Guzeppi Lamagna and Orazio Mifsud, made a request to the Bishop that they would like to start a Community under the rules of the Oratorians of St. Philip. The also told him that they are prepared to take under their care the church of St. Philip.

     By a Bishop decree of 28th. March 1662

he agreed to their request. They start to call themselves The Oratorians of St. Philip, because they wanted to go according to the rules that St. Philip wrote to the priests of Rome. 

      In 1670, the church was demolished and a new and bigger one was built. The Architect was Mastru Karlu Vella, and it was ready in 1690. It was built in the form of a Latin Cross. It took that long to built, because of the Plague of 1675-76, when 20% of the population around the harbour perished. In fact, in Senglea from a population of around 4000, 1885 died, nearly 50% of the population.

      As the Titular remained the same, and the feast was celebrated on the 2nd. of July, the Oratorians started also to celebrate the feast of their patron saint, i.e. of St. Philip, a week before.

      The only time the Oratorians had to leave the convent was in 1837, when the then Governor, Governor Bouvarie used the convent as a hospital, because the Central Hospital in Floriana was full. When everything came back to normal, after a great whitewash to the convent, the Oratorians opened a community kitchen and started to serve some food to poor people, sort of a Victory Kitchen.

   An interesting thing to say is, that the 8th. September Regatta knows its origin to this church. 

     It all started in 1596, when they used to organize two boat races, one with oars and the other with sails, as part of the outside celebrations of the feast, on July 2nd. The rector , used to present the prizes, which were in form of a Palio ( a flag generally made of silk or damask) on the steps of the church overlooking the harbour.

     When the Oratorians took over, they continued to organize the said races. But now it started to be bigger, because more cities used to take part, such as Vittoriosa and Cospicua. But as time went by, the expenses became enormous, so they decided not to organize it any more.

    Then the parish stepped in, and started to organize it themselves. But instead of on the 2nd. July , they organized it on the 8th. of September. But because of the finances it was back to square.  By now it became as a National event, and the Government stepped in, and continued to organize it himself, till this day.

   During World War II The Basilica suffered lots of damage, and cannot be used. So in 1943 the church of St. Philip, took the role as the Parish Church of Senglea. It kept this role till 1958, when the Basilica was ready and the statue of il-Bambina was transferred there.

   In 1958, the Jesuits community moved in and started to give their assistance in the St. Philip church, the Parish, and the people of Senglea, specially those in the vicinity of the church.