Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Sacro Cuor) in Sliema

Welcome to the Parish of Our lady of the Sacred Heart in the town of Sliema.

Dun Pawl Vella, a priest from the nearby capital Valletta, first conceived the idea of building a church when he noticed that the population of Sliema was steadily growing.

The cathedral Chapter had put aside a pocket of land for this very purpose, and so Dun Pawl formed a committee to prepare the necessary work in order to start work on the church. However, despite a five year wait, the Cathedral Chapter never responded to the request.

Then, as preparations were in hand to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Episcopal Consecration of Pope Pius IX which fell on the 3rd of June 1877, Dun Pawl took the opportunity once more, established a committee and made the case for a new church, this time with a special emphasis on the church being dedicated to the Madonna under her title ‘Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”.

At last Dun Pawl’s efforts were rewarded, and on the 7 of May 1877 Archbishop Carmelo Scicluna published a decree calling for the building of the new church. Immediately after, at the end of May, works began, and on the 3rd of June the foundation stone was laid and blessed. The new church was completed just 4 years later, in June 1881, and in November of the same year was passed on to the Order of the Friars Minor, better known as the Franciscans. In 1918 the church was elevated to the status of parish.

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The titular Statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was commissioned in January 1878 and is the work of Ġlormu (Jerome) Darmanin. He would finish the statue in August of that year. This is the last work created by this artist as he was to die a few days later.The statue was gilded and then moved to the monastery and cloisters of the Sisters of St Ursula in Valletta. Finally, on the 26 June 1881, the statue arrived in Sliema. It was greeted by processions, a children’s choir, rosary recitations, and a high mass to mark this historic occasion.