Whilst we were in Malta, it was the celebration of  the extended holiday on the island of St Paul who, perhaps unsurprisingly, became their patron saint.

Apparently he got shipwrecked there in a February though it is not entirely clear which one( As I said before, we probably should have checked the weather before we booked a February trip – shipwrecking month).

He was there, so it is said, for three months before carrying on to Rome to plead his case against being arrested in Jerusalem.

He had been accused of defiling the temple by bringing gentiles within its precincts and apparently 40 jewish locals said they would eat or drink nothing until they had killed him.

Luckily for him, his nephew hears of this plot and Paul was given a protective escort and sent off to Felix governor of Caesarea who put him under house arrest but gave orders that his friends could look after him well and he wasn’t to suffer hardship. For two years.

No snap legal decisions then.

But Felix was replaced by Festus who said Paul should be hauled back to Jerusalem and face the music. 

Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to ‘appeal unto caesar’ and, btw, being a Roman citizen had also prevented him from being flogged. 

So, off he sets and gets shipwrecked on Malta with 275 companions. Rather a precise number you may think to be sure of after all this time but then there are people who believe the world was literally created in seven days.

I don’t know about you, but I‘d be hard pressed to muster 275 companions never mind saying to them that they should accompany me on a perilous journey to Rome where Christians were not, shall we say, universally liked/tolerated/allowed to live…

Anyway, they swim ashore from their shipwreck and make it to land where they are found by locals who despite them being wet and foreign, warm them by a fire and give them food – yes all 275 of them….

A snake appears roused by the warmth of the fire, and bites Paul on the arm.

The previously welcoming locals take fright and assume this is a sign of an evil person, but when Paul carries on talking ( I am guessing a bit of preaching thrown in) with no ill-effects they change back to being welcoming locals, and indeed are impressed.

Paul manages to convert the whole island ( and its small neighbour Gozo) within his three months and according to the locals, find time to bathe in St Paul’s bay – well why not.

This landing on Malta is mentioned in the Bible’s Acts of the Apostles ( my auto correct just had that as Scots of the Apostles which may indeed have been a more interesting story) so the Maltese have something to point to.

Just to finish the story, he does make it to Rome where he is again under a rather lenient house arrest for two years until he a) dies in a fire b) was martyred but its is not explained how exactly or c) was ‘slewn by Nero’. I am guessing on the orders of rather than directly but then who knows with Nero.

Meanwhile, the Maltese have annual celebration involving a lot of fireworks, some processions, busy buses with people on a day off, and eating prinulatta which is I am told some almond-based dessert always eaten on St Paul’s day. ( I am not a sweet-eating person or I would have done more investigation and found you a recipe….)

Just one last thing, another source I have just found says Paul had 274 companions. Just wanted you to know there are some aspects of this story which don’t necessarily add up.

And whilst on the subject of shipwrecks, guess what just got donated to our bookshop.