page_title: Frenċ tal-Għarb
section_title: Adulthood
hierarchical_section_title: Frenċ tal-Għarb / Adulthood
caption_attribution_description: English: The Way of the Cross of Ta Pinu Sanctuary station 11 Camera location36°&#160;03′&#160;30″&#160;N, 14°&#160;13′&#160;11″&#160;E&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: Francis Xavier Mercieca, more commonly known as Frenċ tal-Għarb, was a farmer and faith healer from the village of Għarb in Gozo, Malta. He was an apostle of Our Lady of Ta' Pinu.
context_section_description: Frenċ, who remained a bachelor throughout his life, was an active member of the Catholic Action movement which had a presence in his village. He had a great devotion towards the Blessed Virgin Of Ta' Pinu and towards the Holy Eucharist.
  Frenċ used to take part in village theatrical productions, better known as “teatrin”. His part, very often, was that of a clown. People used to flock to the village hall to watch Frenċ.
  Frenċ spent most of his life working in the fields. When he returned home, he used to find a lot of people, coming all walks of life, waiting for him. They would seek his counsel and were eager to listen to his advice and to elicit from him prayers for their needs.
  Frenċ combined his old knowledge in old medicinal herbs, his prayers and his faith in Our Lady for his cures, and his reputation spread rapidly throughout the entire Maltese Islands and even abroad.
  Very often he would anticipate the questions that people were going to pose to him. He even disclosed to some of his visitors incidents from their own past, especially their past wrongdoings. A reprimand and a call for repentance would normally follow.  
  In some cases he even is said to have foretold the future.
caption: One of the fourteen stations of 'The way of the cross' on the Ta' Għammar hill
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "RenRot v1.1 (r578), ExifTool v7.82, ImageMagick v6.5.1-0", "Image DateTime": "2010:03:01 21:58:24", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Hans A. Rosbach/CC-BY-SA-3.0", "Image ExifOffset": "322", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "8100", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8212", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5088", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:03:01 14:20:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:03:01 14:20:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "61/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "53/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "35", "EXIF SubSecTime": "19", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "19", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "19", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5616", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3744", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8070", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5616000/1459", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1872000/479", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}