Festa tan-Nawfragju ta' San Pawl
The anniversary of the shipwreck of St Paul on Malta in 60 AD, which is described in the Acts of the Apostles. St Paul is the patron saint of Malta, and the shipwreck is the founding event of Maltese Christianity. The feast is celebrated with a procession through the streets of Valletta, and the statue of St Paul is carried on the shoulders of the devotees. The tradition says that St Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, and the Maltese people showed him "unusual kindness." The feast is both religious and national, because St Paul is the reason Malta is Catholic. The church of St Paul's Shipwreck in Valletta holds a relic of the saint's wrist bone, and the procession is one of the most important religious events in the Maltese calendar.