The statue of Our Lady of Rosary has just been restored and was brought to Zejtun last Sunday through a pilgrimage which started from the Old Parish Church of St Gregory and ended at the Parish Church.
In 2006, researcher and arts curator Sandro Debono, had established who was the sculptor of this statues. Through his research he found the contract which was made between Dun Ġwann Borg as a procurator and Vincenzo Dimech, son of Sigismondo from Valletta. This statue was sculptured from elm wood and artistically it is a copy of a similar statue sculpted by Melchiorre Gafa’ for the Dominican Priors at Rabat, Malta.
The Confraternity of Our Lady of Rosary has been long trying seek the professional restoration of this statue. The work was entrusted to Mario and Ruben Camilleri Cauchi, from Gozo, who carried out a condition assessment on the statue and made their recommendations. It was decided that the statue had to be conserved rather than restored since the original gilding and its base were still in a relatively good condition and all it needed was some consolidation and cleaning, however the pedestal was heavily deteriorated and had to be treated against termite attack, the gilding and base had to be re-done.
The Confraternity of Our Lady of Rosary will be celebrating the feast to Our Lady on Sunday 9th October through a mass at 6:00pm followed by a procession with the statue and the prayer of Rosary.
Wirt iż-Żejtun 