In a quiet room at the National Museum of Montenegro, bathed in peaceful blue light, hangs a remarkable painting called Our Lady of Philermos. It once hung in a dedicated chapel in St John’s Co-Cathedral for 220 years. Mario Cacciottolo asks, should it come back to Malta?
The painting of Our Lady of Philermos was the most venerated icon for the Order of St John for centuries.
Legend suggests it was painted by St Luke and we know it was first venerated in Jerusalem. It’s thought to have come into the possession of the Order in Rhodes in the 14th century.
Now, the painting is kept in Montenegro and the modern-day Order says it would be “wonderful and important” if this hugely significant icon could return to Malta, even temporarily.
A local academic has also called for an “inter-institutional, indefinite long-term loan of Our Lady of Philermos to Malta”.
Various miracles have been associated with this artwork. For example, Our Lady of Philermos was asked to intercede in the case of a woman said to be possessed by evil spirits, who then vomited a live frog and was cured.
As for the Knights of St John, they prayed passionately before this painting to Our Lady of Philermos for salvation during various battles, most notably the Siege of Rhodes in 1480 and the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.
Both these subsequent victories for the Knights, and many other successful conflicts, were attributed to the intercession of Our Lady, leading to her reputation to grow far and wide as a result.
Thousands of people queued to see the painting when it was displayed by the Knights in a church in Viterbo, Italy, in the 1520s. Many believed it was keeping them safe in times of war.
At home in Malta
After the Great Siege, when the new city of Valletta was built, the first building to be constructed was Our Lady of Victory church.
The painting of Our Lady of Philermos – also known as the Virgin of Victory and the Madonna of Victories – was kept there from March 1571 until February 1578, when it was moved to the new conventual church of the Order, known today as St John’s Co-Cathedral.
But it wasn’t just moved – it was given its own chapel in the conventual church, larger than the other chapels, and one with its own budget.
The chapel of Our Lady of Philermos was richly decorated with gold, silver and jewels.
Still on display today are two sets of keys, from three Ottoman strongholds around the Mediterranean, spoils of war that were offered to Our Lady. Two plaques still visible in the chapel today explain how the Order raided these places in 1602, captured large amounts of grain and saved Malta from potential famine.
All of this success was attributed to Our Lady of Philermos, whom the knights believe was helping them succeed in their battles against the Ottomans.
Mario Buhagiar, professor in the history of art at the University of Malta, has written extensively on Our Lady of Philermos.
In his book Essays on the Knights and Art and Architecture in Malta, Buhagiar explains how the painting was given various coverings of gold, silver, diamonds, pearls and damask when in Malta (possibly to hide the damage done by two fires) that only left the face of the Madonna visible.
French troops stripped Our Lady of these precious items when they arrived in 1798.
Thankfully, the painting itself was allowed to be taken by Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch, who carried it in his luggage when he and the Order of St John hurriedly left Malta that year.
Accompanying the painting were two other major relics of the Order, the right hand of St John the Baptist and a fragment of the True Cross – both of which are also in Montenegro today, in Cetinje Monastery.
Following their flight from Malta, Our Lady of Philermos was given to Paul I, Tsar of Russia, in 1799, by rebel knights of St John, who wanted the tsar to be their leader to replace the ineffective Hompesch.
But Paul I was never formally recognised as grand master by the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless, the painting was kept by the Russian royal family, smuggled out of the country during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then passed around European countries by Russian royalty.
It ended up in Belgrade, then capital of Yugoslavia, before it went missing in World War II and, for a long time, was presumed lost or destroyed.
It was finally located in a monastery in Montenegro in 1997 and has remained in the country since. The Art Museum, one part of the National Museum of Montenegro in the town of Cetinje, keeps Our Lady of Philermos in a separate room, albeit with no information board visible to explain what the painting is, nor its extensive history.
Replica icon
When Times of Malta reported the discovery of Our Lady of Philermos in 1997, the article stated that it was being restored in Montenegro and would later be taken to The Order’s premises in Rome, where then Grand Master Frà Andrew Bertie would decide where to place it.
The report suggested that Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa would be the likely destination. However, the painting has remained in Montenegro.
The Order of St John, now based in Rome, said that while it no longer claims to own Our Lady of Philermos, it would like to see the painting put on display in both Malta and other parts of Europe.
“It would certainly be wonderful and important if Montenegro chose to allow the temporary display of the icon of Our Lady of Philermos, not only in Malta but also in other places of importance to the Order of Malta,” it said in a statement.
It also said that “the Sovereign Order of Malta has not owned the icon since the early 19th century” and that it “belongs to the Montenegrin state”.
In December 2024, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia was presented with a replica of Our Lady of Philermos by the president of the Montenegrin parliament, Andrija Mandićj.
That replica is now kept in the speaker’s office in the Maltese parliament building.
Dane Munro is a Malta-based academic who has written a chapter for a new book called Law, Humanities, and Tourism: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Restitution of Cultural Heritage.
In it, he calls for the return of the sword and poniard of Grand Master Jean de Valette to Malta, from the Louvre in Paris, where both items are currently held.
He believes a similar argument can be applied to Our Lady of Philermos, although he acknowledges that the ownership issue is much different from that of de Valette’s sword and poniard.
“How many people are looking at the icon in Montenegro? There’s no interpretation in the room it’s currently in; nobody has an idea what they are looking at.
“If you claim ownership of something, you have to show that that ownership is documented. There must be a paper trail,” Munro said.
“After Our Lady of Philermos left Malta, it got passed around from one person to another but that does not mean its ownership was transferred.”
Munro says there is a strong case for the temporary return of the icon to Malta or other places of significance of the Order.
But Malta should have preference, he adds, as in his view no venue can compete with St John’s Co-Cathedral, where it was last revered when in Malta.
“I am not doubting the opinion of the Order about the painting’s ownership, also because the ownership issue is not an easy thing to solve. In my view, that should be a water-under-the-bridge issue, as with the sword and poniard.
“You will get record numbers of visitors to see this historic icon in Malta.”
Munro said any agreement over a loan would come with guarantees about safety and maintenance and called on the “governments and institutions involved to come to an amicable solution”.
The new museum wing of St John’s Co-Cathedral is due to open within the next few years.
This story originally appeared in the Times of Malta on 19 August 2025
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