The Legend of Ta’ Pinu.

On 22 June 1883, a Gozitan peasant and worker in a field, Karmni Grima, apparently heard a female voice coming from the Chapel Pinu, that she was walking past. The voice was calling her in Maltese, and telling her “Ejja…ejja!” (“Come…come!”) When she entered the chapel, the same voice told her to “recite three Hail Mary’s in honour of the three days that my body rested in the tomb.” Grima kept this event a secret for two years. When she finally told a friend, Francesco Portelli. His response was to say that he too had heard a woman’s voice at about the same time as Grima had. The voice had told him to honor the “Wound of Christ”, which Christ had received while carrying the cross. Shortly after this conversation, Grima’s mother was miraculously healed after invoking the “Madonna ta’ Pinu”.

From 1887 onwards, many pilgrimages were organized to this chapel, and the need for a new, much larger church arose. On 30 May 1920, the foundation stone of the new church was laid. The church was finally consecrated on 13 December 1931, and from that day onwards, the numerous people visiting the church did not cease.

An interesting feature of this church is that there is a section at the rear of the building which contains many personal accounts in the form of letters and photographs of the miracles which have occurred in connection with the Blessed Virgin of Ta’ Pinu which does make for fascinating reading.

On the hill opposite Ta’ Pinu, can be found when you climb up it, fourteen stages of the cross, and although it is a steep climb it is well worth it for the view alone, also when you reach the top you come across an amphitheatre and another monument.