Victory Mass - 8 September 2025
On Monday 8 September, the Order of Malta kept the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the most important feasts in the Order’s liturgical calendar.
The first reason for its prominence is that on this feast we particularly venerate Our Lady under the title of ‘Our Lady of Philermo’, the name of a wondrous icon which was the centre of the Order’s Marian devotion for centuries - you can read more about this icon here. The second reason is that it was on this feast in 1565 that the Great Siege of Malta by Suleiman the Magnificent was lifted, after the arrival of a force to relieve the knights and their soldiers, who, c.6,500 in total, had held out against the Turkish host of c.40,000 for four months. Francisco Balbi di Corregio recorded in his diary how the wearied knights celebrated the feast:
“I do not believe that this music ever sounded so sweet to human ears as the peal of our bells did to ours on the eigth of September – the day of the Nativity of Our Lady. For the last three months they had only been struck to give the alarm signal but now the Grand Master ordered them to be rung at the hour when the reveille was usually sounded. During the morning they rang for the pontifical high mass at San Lorenzo which was celebrated with great solemnity in thanksgiving to Our Lord God and to His Holy Mother, for the mercy they had shown us.”
It is for this reason that the principal Mass (the “magna missa”) for this feast is referred to as the “Victory Mass”.
The Grand Priory of England held the annual meeting of the General Assembly at 5pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, with some eighty members in attendance, either in person or online. The Assembly heard reports from the Grand Prior, Chancellor, Pro-Hospitaller, and Receiver, before reciting the Rosary together.
A solemn Mass of the feast was then celebrated by Fr Richard Biggerstaff, assisted by Fr Stephen Morrison O.Praem. and Fr Gary Dench, the chant propers and ordinary augmented with motets by Lassus and Morales.
As part of the Grand Priory’s continuing exploration and revival of the liturgical treasures of the Order, the Gospel reading, the genealogy of Our Lord (Matthew 1:1-23) was sung by Fr Morrison in Latin to an ancient tone proper to the Order, identified by the Grand Priory’s Master of Ceremonies in a Missal of the Order printed in 1505, perhaps the first time that it has been sung in several centuries.