page_title: St. Catherine's Old Church, Żejtun
section_title: Passageways
hierarchical_section_title: St. Catherine's Old Church, Żejtun / Interior description / Passageways
caption_attribution_description: English: Secret passage in Chapel of St Gregory, Zejtun
context_page_description: St. Catherine's Old Church, also known as St. Gregory's Church, is a Roman Catholic church in Żejtun. The church and its complex sit towards the outskirts of the town, commanding views over Marsascala Bay, St. Thomas' Bay and Marsaxlokk harbour. The church is colloquially known as Saint Gregory's due to a traditional procession held on the first Wednesday following Easter Sunday. Its dedication to Catherine of Alexandria dates back to an original chapel on this site, which was one of the eight mother churches on Malta. The church stands next to the three cemeteries of Żejtun, dedicated to St. Rocco, St. Gregory and St. Catherine. The church's functions as the parish church of Żejtun were taken over by a new parish church, also dedicated to St. Catherine, and designed by Lorenzo Gafà.
  The present day church was built on the site of an older 15th century chapel, also dedicated to St. Catherine, along with an adjacent private chapel dedicated to St. Mark and St. Jacob. Late medieval texts prove that the church became a landmark for seafarers. Over the years, the chapel was restructured and enlarged, with the demolition of the adjacent private chapel.
context_section_description: In April 1969, local newspapers reported the finding of a large number of human bones, and three secret passageways which were uncovered by workmen. Local legends always narrated the existence of secret passages within the walls of the old church, but over the years attempts to prove this proved futile.
  The discovery took place when three workmen, Ċikku Żammit, Carmelo Spiteri and his sixteen year old nephew Grezzju Vella were waterproofing the church's vaulted roof. Vella was working near the flat dome of the church and unwittingly began to scrape at a narrow crack between two stone slabs. When the crack widened, he threw a stone inside, expecting to hear it go down into the church. Instead it appeared to fall nearby, and Vella realised that there must be something underneath the roof. Vella called the others, and soon they were joined by Fr. Palmier, who was responsible for the church, and by Ġan-Marì Debono, who was the sacristan.
  On removing of a large stone slab, a dark void appeared. As only Vella could pass through the hole in the roof, he was tied to a rope and given a box of matches to inspect the site. The boy came upon a number of human skeletons, a discovery which left him deeply traumatised. Vella only returned to the church in 2011, notwithstanding that he lives only a few kilometres away.
  At the beginning of the third secret corridor, some engravings bearing the initials V.A. and C.Z. were found - along with the date 19.02.09. This indicated that the corridors had already been discovered prior to 1969. After the last discovery, the parish priest traced a certain Carmelo Zahra who confessed that he had entered the passages when he was a young boy together with some other individuals. He claimed that they had seen skeletons dressed as soldiers in the passages and that they had some weapons and flags with them. According to Zahra, these remains disappeared and he was warned not to mention the discovery again.
  The few remains that were collected during the 1969 discovery included a wooden shoe sole with a high heel, a small gilded wooden cross of Byzantine design, odd bits of a gilded wooden frame (perhaps an icon), three coins (two bronze with the cross of the Order, the other gold), pieces of pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries, fragments of animal bones and a part of a chain-mail armour vest. These remains are stored in one of the rooms of the church.
  No evidence exists on the provenance of the bones, or how they ended up in these secret passages. Speculation suggests that these were the bones of unfortunate victims of the 1614 Turkish raid, while others suggest the void was used as an ossuary. Between 1978 and 1980 studies on the bones indicated that the skeletons had probably been exhumed and moved there from a cemetery. Moreover, it was found that the skeletal remains belonged to individuals who had died within a short period of time.
caption: Secret passageway, with stacked bones, in St. Catherine's Old Church.
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