12. The chapel of Our Lady of Philermos
The first chapel on the south side was dedicated to the Madonna of Philermos. This chapel, which is now reserved for prayer, was one of the most important chapels for the knights for this is where the icon of the Madonna of Philermos was kept. This icon drew great devotion as it was believed to be miraculous and had been in the possession of the Order since the knights were in Jerusalem. L’Isle Adam had brought this precious icon all the way from Rhodes. This was the icon the knights prayed to for victory before battle and, when victorious, the keys of the captured fortresses would be offered to the Virgin. These keys still hang in the Chapel to this day. Amongst them are the keys of the castles of Lepanto and Patras.
In 1798, when the Napoleonic conquest of Malta forced Grand Master Hompesch to leave the island, he took with him this precious icon (together with the arm of St John the Baptist and a relic of the true cross). It was taken to St Petersburg, but after the Russian Revolution it was hidden in a monastery and its whereabouts was unknown for several years. It is now exhibited in the fine arts Museum of Montenegro. The silver gates that act as an iconostasis were installed in the eighteenth century as a gift to the church from the inheritance of two prominent knights, Bali Guglielmo de la Salle and Bali Francesco Rovero di Guarena. The knights often vied with one another to give the church gifts of ever lasting beauty and prestige. The splendid reredos is to the design of a Florentine artist working in Messina from where most of the marble was brought over for this fine piece of baroque polychrome design. Relics were very important during the time of the knights for relics represented the blood of the martyrs and drew great devotion towards the church in which they were kept.