Hospice For the Elderly and Chapel

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In the 18th century, the Senglean Joseph Cornelio bought a large house which had a private oratory. When he and his wife passed away the house was inherited by their daughter Magdalene. On December 14, 1764 Magdalene and her husband Nicholas Dingli were blessed with the birth of their daughter Marianna. Unfortunately, on July 17, 1766 their daughter died. Eleven months later, Magdalene gave birth to another daughter also named Marianna. Four and a half years later, their only son was born. Sadly, he also died at a young age. Years later another tragedy hit the Dingli family as Marianna died at the age of 25 without leaving any children. Since Magdalene and Nicholas had no other children left to whom they could leave their wealth, they decided to turn their house into an ospizio for elderly and frail women. On September 3, 1819 the ospizio opened its doors and initially it could accommodate 6 women. The chapel inside the ospizio was dedicated to St Anne. It was established that 3 women had to be from Magdalene’s side whilst the other 3 had to be relatives of Nicholas. If there were no relatives then preference would go to women from Senglea or Siġġiewi where Nicholas’s relatives lived. On October 23rd, 1980 the building was demolished and by 1984 it was rebuilt. The new ospizio was named St Anne’s Home and it was inaugurated by Mgr Joseph Mercieca, Archbishop of Malta, on June 30, 1987.