A great deal of time had been lost, and navigation was already hazardous, since it was now well after the time of the Fast. So Paul gave them a warning, "Friends, I can see this voyage will be dangerous and that we will run considerable risk of losing not only the cargo and the ship but also our lives as well.' But the centurion took more notice of the captain and ship's owner than of what Paul was saying; and since the harbour was unsuitable for wintering, the majority were for putting out from there in the hope of wintering at Phoenix - a harbour in Crete, facing south-west and north-west.

A southerly breeze sprang up and, thinking their objective as good as reached, they weighed anchor and began to sail past Crete, close inshore. But it was not long before a hurricane, the north-easter' as the call it, burst on them from across the island. The ship was caught and could not keep head to wind, so we had t give way to the wind and let ourselves be driven. We ran under the lee of a small island called Cauda and managed with some difficulty to bring the ship's boat under control. Having hauled it up they used it to underdig the ship; then, afraid of running aground on the Syrtis banks, they floated out the sea-anchor and so let themselves drift. As we were thoroughly storm-bound, the next day they began to jettison the cargo, and the third day they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands. For a number of days both the sun and the stars were invisible and the storm raged unabated until at last we gave up all hope of surviving.

Then, when they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among the men. "Friends,' he said, 'you should have listened to me and not put out from Crete. You would have spared yourselves all this damage and loss. But now I ask you not to give way to despair. There will be no loss of life at all, only of the ship. Last night there appeared beside me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, and he said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to appear before Caesar, and God grants you the safety of all who are sailing with you." So take courage, friends; I trust God that things will turn out just as I was told; but we are to be stranded on some island.'

On the fourteenth night we were being driven one way and the another in the Adriatic, when about midnight the crew sensed that land of some sort was near. They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; after a short interval they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms. Then, afraid that we might run aground somewhere on a reef, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. When the crew tried to escape from the ship and lowered the ship's boat into the sea as though they meant to lay out anchors from the bows, Paul said to the centurion and his men, 'Unless those men stay on board you cannot hope to be saved.' So the soldiers cut the boat's ropes and let it drop away.

Just before daybreak Paul urged them all to have something to eat. "for fourteen days', he said, 'you have been in suspense, going hungry and eating nothing, I urge you to have something to eat; your safety depends on it. Not a hair of any of your heads will be lost.' With these words he took some bread, gave thanks to God in view of them all, broke it and began to eat. They all plucked up courage and took something to eat themselves. In all we were two hundred and seventy-six souls on board that ship. When they had eaten what they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the corn overboard into the sea.

When day came they did not recognize the land, but they could make out a bay with a beach; they planned to run the ship aground on this if they could. They slipped the anchors and let them fall into the sea, and at the same time loosened the lashings of the rudders; then, hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach. But the cross-currents carried them into a shoal and the vessel ran aground. The bows were wedged in and stuck fast, while the stern began to break up with the pounding of the waves.

The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners for dear that any should swim off and escape. But the centurion was determined to bring Paul safely through and would not let them carry out their plan. He gave orders that those who could swim should jump overboard first and so get ashore, and the rest follow either on planks or on pieces of wreckage. In this way it happened that all came safe and sound to land.

Once we came safely through, we discovered that the island was called Malta. The inhabitants treated us with unusual kindness. They made us all welcome by lighting a huge fire because it had started to rain and the weather was cold. Paul collected a bundle of sticks and was putting them on the fire when a viper brought out by the heat attached itself to his hand. When the inhabitants saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another, 'That man must be a murdered; he may have escaped the sea, but divine justice would not let him live.' However, he shook the creature off into the fire and came to no harm, although they were expecting him at any moment to swell up or drop dead on the spot. After they had waited a long time without seeing anything out of the ordinary happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say he was a god.

In that neighbourhood there were estates belonging to the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius. He received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It happened that Publius' father was in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after a prayer he laid his hands on the man and healed him. When this happened, the other sick people on the island also came and were cured: they honoured us with many marks of respect, and when we sailed they put on board the provision we needed.

The Conversion of the Maltese Population to Catholicism

St. Paul preached the Gospel during his three-month stay in Malta. He converted many Maltese to Christianity during his stay, one of them being Publius. Publius was later appointed Bishop of Malta. The conversion of the Maltese to Christianity was quite slow. However, it is evident that by the 3rd Century A.D., Christianity became the accepted religion among the majority of the population.

Back