Church Exterior

View of the exterior of the church of San Pawl Milqi that is under refurbishing.

San Pawl Milqi is a Roman farmstead that was built at the end of the 2nd century/1st century B.C.  It overlooks the Burmarrad Plain and the Salina Bay (1 mi. away) to the northeast.  It was part of a large agricultural estate—possibly owned by Publius.  A fire in the mid–3rd/beginning 4th century A.D. caused the abandonment of the farmstead

Tradition has associated this place as the Villa of Publius, who was the "chief official of the island."  There is no certain proof that would make this is true, but the farmstead was in existence in Paul's day and it is not too far from three bays that have been proposed as where Paul's ship was wrecked:  Salina Bay 1 mi. to the northeast, St. Paul's Bay 1 mi. to the northwest, and Mellieha Bay 3.5 mi. to the northwest.

Acts 28:7     There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably.  8 His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him

The church that exists today derives from an A.D. 1616 Church that had replaced an earlier fifteenth-century church.