The Nativity of Our Lady
Dedication Date
26 May 1878
Parish Arcpriest
Can Carmel Refalo
Mobile: 99449799
E-mail: refaloc@mail.global.net.mt
Parish Office
9,Pjazza Vitorja, Xagħra XRA 1010
Telephone: 2155 1042 – 2155 7881 (church)
Fax: 2156 8715
Website
http://www.xaghraparish.org/
E-Mail
xaghraparishoffice@gmail.com
Community Radio
Radju Bambina – 98.3MHz FM stereo
http://www.xaghraparish.org/
Mass Schedule (click here)
Parish Population
4166
Brief History
Xaghra rises on a hill in the central north-east of Gozo. Its name is Maltese for a wilderness, refering to the state of the hill before it was inhabited. The village is known world-wide because of the Ggantija Temples, the construction of which began some 5,600 years ago. About half a kilometre to the north of the Temples, on Triq il-Qacca, there is the Gozo Stone Circle, the underground cemetry of the Temple builders. The legendary Calypso cave is on the outskirts of this village.
Xaghra has a beautiful parish church dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, locally known as Il-Vitorja, the Blessed Virgin Mary of Victories, as it was on 8 September 1565, Mary’s birthday, that the Knights and the Maltese succeeded to overcome a much larger Turkish army and to free Malta and southern Europe from the Islamic onslaughter.
The parish of Xaghra was established by Bishop Cocco-Palmeri on 28 April 1688. The parish was originally sited in the chapel of Saint Antony Abbot in the same village. The present church, like many others, grew over and around an older building first recorded late in the seventeenth century. The foundation stone of the present structure was laid on 2 October 1815. It was consecrated on 26 May 1878 and was raised to Archipresbyteral status on 11 March 1893. The fourth Collegiate of Gozo was established at Xaghra on 17 March 1900. The title of Basilica was conferred on the parish on 26 August 1967.
The church is covered with marble throughout, but its main attraction is a beautiful statue of the young Virgin Mary, il-Bambina, brought from Marseilles in 1878.
