Sacred Journey Through
Malta & Sicily:

The Revd Steve Hilton SCP

Christianity has always been a movement faith. It begins with a call to leave things behind and follow, just as Peter and Andrew left their nets beside the Sea of Galilee, and Paul sets out from Damascus toward an unknown horizon. In the Bible, geography is seldom incidental; the people of God encounter the living God in specific places, amidst real landscapes.

Malta and Sicily, two islands nestled in the heart of the Mediterranean, bear ancient testament to this truth. They represent crossroads of faith, commerce, conquest, and culture. They are places where Christian identity was shaped - in ruins, along shorelines, within catacombs, in basilicas, and in the hospitality of local people.

The Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome, recorded in Acts 27 and 28, occupies a unique place in the Christian imagination. It is a narrative filled with both divine providence and human fragility. After his arrest in Jerusalem, Paul petitions to stand trial in Rome. But before he arrives there, a violent storm sends the ship he is travelling on crashing into the rocky coasts of Malta. Stranded and shaken, the crew and passengers are forced to swim to shore. Amid hardship, “the natives showed us unusual kindness” (Acts 28.2). That simple phrase has become a profound witness to the God who shows grace to the displaced, the weary, and the stranger. It is as if Luke, writing for Christians scattered across the Roman world, wanted readers to know that even in shipwreck, God’s story continues.

For pilgrims, there is something compelling about walking where Paul once stood - about touching stones worn by centuries of prayer. But pilgrimage is not just about retracing footsteps. It is about allowing the Biblical stories to permeate our own journeys. We read Paul’s story not merely as ancient history, but as an invitation to inhabit our own faith more deeply. In modern Malta and Sicily, visitors encounter churches built upon old pagan temples or resting on geological fault lines that echo the instability of life itself. These sites remind us that conversion, like travel, often requires letting go of familiar certainties. We come ashore uncertain, sometimes shipwrecked by grief, doubt, or change - yet like Paul, we discover that God’s love finds us in the brokenness. God can do much with our failure and fecklessness.

Malta’s Christian presence dates back to the first centuries of the Church. Catholic tradition holds that Paul stayed on Malta for three months, healing the sick and eventually sailing to Sicily before continuing to Rome. Pilgrims visiting this region today can explore catacombs lined with early Christian symbols, or view St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat - places where communion with God was nurtured in quiet secrecy, long before Christianity was an official religion of empire. Those catacombs evoke Paul’s teachings about the Church as ‘a body’ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27): hidden, interdependent, and shaped not by prominence but by mutual care.

Sicily, too, is layered with spiritual and historical significance. From Syracuse, where Paul spent time preaching and strengthening believers, to Palermo’s Norman cathedrals and Agrigento’s ancient ruins, the island’s landscape invites reflection on the relationship between faith and culture. The Bible teaches that the gospel is not a static doctrine, but a living message that adapts to each context while staying true to Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that ‘the world in its present form is passing away’ (1 Corinthians 7:31). Sicily, an island shaped by shifting rulers and cultures, in many ways embodies that transience, yet also the endurance of the gospel.

A pilgrimage through Malta and Sicily invites us to confront that paradox: change and continuity, fragility and faithfulness. As pilgrims today voyage through cathedrals and towns, Mediterranean sunsets and centuries-old mosaics, they are also confronted by their own spiritual landscapes. What storms have shaped the course of our lives? Where have we needed God’s unusual kindness? What does it mean to follow Jesus across the uncertain seas of the twenty-first century in Australia?

The Apostle Paul’s own journey did not end in Malta or Sicily. His destination was Rome, and his mission was to testify boldly to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet the path he took, with all its detours and disasters, reveals God’s faithfulness on unfamiliar terrain. Pilgrimage is like that: not simply reaching a destination but being open to God’s presence along the way. Pilgrimage changes the pilgrim.

In a world marked by fast travel, instant communication, and ceaseless distraction, intentional journeys offer time and stillness. They give space for the Bible to come alive in our hearts as it did for Paul’s companions in ancient times. In Acts 28, some have said that Paul’s shipwreck was part of God’s providence because it brought the sewing of seeds to Malta. God sometimes uses disruptions to plant the seeds of faith more deeply than calm seas ever could.

Christian pilgrimage need not only be about visiting sacred sites; it is about rediscovering our own hearts as places of pilgrimage. Like the early Christians who worshipped underground, or Paul whose life was reshaped by calamity, we are invited to see our journeys as part of the greater unfolding of God’s redemptive work. Whether walking along an ancient basalt shore or simply navigating the challenges of our daily routines, we walk with Christ - and in that sense, every path can become holy.

If you’d like more information about a forthcoming pilgrimage in May 2026, then please go to trips.christianpilgrimage.com.au/sacred-journey-malta-sicily - we would be delighted to welcome Messenger readers as fellow pilgrims: only a few places remain.

Published in Messenger February 2026