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Three more of St John’s.
Left picture shows left-side aisle leading to the Chapel of the Anglo-Bavarian Lange. This chapel is dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo. It was previously known as the Shrine of the Holy Relics.. The alterpiece is an effigy of St. Chalres Borromeo by the 18th century painter Agostino Masucci, the Crucifix is by Alessandro Algardi. On the right of the alter is a figure of St. john the Baptist, carved in wood which was once the figurehead of an armoured war vessel, owned by the Order of St. John.
Middle picture shows the funerary monument of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, the 62nd Grand Master of the Order from 1680 to 1690. Italian by birth, he is buried in the Italian Chapel of the Cathedral.
Right-hand picture shows the aisle opposite to the one in the left picture. This leads to the Chapel of Our Lady of Philermos, also called the Carafa Chapel. More on this later.
Because the knights of the Order came from around all the European countries, they were organised into groups in accordance with their language, each group being called a Langue. Each Langue had a Councillor in the top administration of the Order and each Councillor had specific responsibilities such as Admiral of the fleet, ect. Each Langue was also responsible for its part of the defences of the city – for example, St Barbara Bastion was the responsibility of the Langue of Castille, Leon and Portugal. Similarly, each Langue had its particular chapel in its conventual church, that is in St John’s Co-cathedral.
Thank you very much for looking and for your beautiful comments on yesterday’s picture. Sorry if may be boring you with my narratives but I am finding them so exiting myself. Though most of the history I know it already, there are details which I had never known of before.
