The Miraculous Frame of Christ

In the 1960s, my maternal great-great-grandfather, Emanuel Cassar, owned the canteen at the Dragonara hotel. He met with a lot of people including tourists. One day around 1968, he met an old married couple who visited Malta once every year. They were talking to him and mentioned that from where they came there was a sacred face of Christ. My great-great-grandfather had seen him only once before and told them how much he liked it. They promised him that when they visit Malta again, they would bring him a small picture.

My great-great-grandfather had forgotten all about it because he never thought that the next year the couple would truly come back and give him the picture of Christ. They brought him a replica of 30 x 36 cm framed in glass with a border made from cane. He went home very happy that day and from then onwards the frame was kept in their bedroom and my great-great-grandmother, Emanuela, used to leave a lighted candle in front of it all the time.

After not more than two years since the couple gave them the picture, while my great-great-grandmother went out shopping with my grandmother Imperia, who was about twelve years old at that time and lived with her grandparents instead of her parents, there was an accident in their home. When they returned home, they found that the wooden bedside table where the candle was left lighted had caught fire. The curtain and the bedside table were burnt and not good anymore.

Miraculously, Christ’s picture was left untouched. Only the glass had cracked and the place where it stood on the bedside table was also spared. The great-great-grandparents re-did the glass and kept it in its place in the bedroom.

More than two years then passed and a tragedy happened. My great- great-grandfather was always at work and so it was normal for my great- great-grandmother to go out with my grandmother. They went to the Tivoli to watch a movie. They did notice a couple of policemen walking around like searching for someone, but they did not even imagine that it involved them. Once out of the Tivoli, my great grandparents, Anthony and Alfreda Axisa, were waiting for them to drive them back home. Since my grandmother lived with her grandparents, it was nice when her parents went along to visit her. No one said anything but when they arrived near their house a crowd had formed. My great grandmother explained that there was a fire and the house was destroyed. It was usual that as a prank kids rang the bells in the street but unfortunately theirs got stuck and a short circuit started the fire. Everything was lost – cash left at home, clothes, furniture – apart from the picture of Christ.

This time again only the glass broke but the whole frame was left untouched by the fire. They walked out of the black house with only the frame in hand. My great-great-grandparents and grandmother lived for about six months with my great grandparents and their kids (my mother’s uncles and aunt).

My great-great-grandmother said that the frame of the Christ was miraculous and did not want any glass in front of it. In fact, they never re- did the glass and left it with just the caned border.

My grandmother, who is 67 years today, said that the picture has been in our family for three generations and will keep going from parent to child so that one day it will be at my house too. It has been already about thirty years at my grandmother’s house and she also keeps it in the main bedroom.

From an online search by my mother, Kirstin Avellino, we know that the replica is similar to the art of the Baroque era of Guido Reni titled “Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns” and can be found in the collection in the Detroit Institute of Arts, in Detroit, Michigan.