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The parish church of Rabat,
founded in 1575 but remodelled in 1692, was built over one of Malta's
earliest Christian chapels, on the same spot where St Paul once preached.
The Grotto of St Paul, below the adjoining Chapel of St Publius, is the
main point of interest. According to local Christian belief is was here
that St Paul spent several weeks preaching Christianity; another story has
it that the apostle was imprisoned here. It is also said that stone scraped
from the grotto walls has special healing powers and that, however much
stone is scraped away, the cave never alters in size. The prominent
feature, below a series of dimly lit catacombs, is a marble statue of St
Paul.
The custodian will inform you that the grotto was once a Roman prison and
will show you the holes in the roof from where the prisoner's chains once
hung. Two tiny chapels are dedicated to St Paul and St Luke, each one with
a statute of its apostle.
In 1990 Pope John Paul II visited Rabat and came to pray in the grotto. His
starting prayer, 'God Bless Malta and the Maltese', is inscribed on a
plaque on the exterior wall of the church.
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