Death

Death is strongly documented in our archives.  The interplay between the secular and religious aspects of death is fascinating.  There is an economic aspect to it evident in accounts of funerals and the whole ritual and mourning process that goes with it. The painstaking process for the Addolorata cemetery to develop its current infrastructure is documented in a fragmented story in a number of state, church and religious orders’ archives.  The attempts at remembrance and ritual processes such as embalming, masses for the repose of souls of the dead, and the imagery of the process are scattered across religious archives, especially in the kaxxarizzi (cupboards) of confraternities.  Even processes such as cremation, which is once again topical in Malta and which for long spans of time was considered as a sensitive topic, have been identified in the records selected for this publication.