St John’s Co Cathedral, Malta – click here to view the article
Daniela Murphy Corella, President of Associazione Bastioni, and Luke Olbrich, founder of the Mircea Maria Gerard Foundation, have collaborated for over a decade on a shared vision of sacred art conservation that is both rigorously professional and deeply human. Together they presented this work at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Malta, during the Biennial International Conference on European Cathedrals (Malta–Pisa, 8–9 May 2025).
Their paper discusses how a long-running programme of conservation projects (2016–2024), framed by Christian values such as humility, life, death, faith and healing, charity, and prayer, can help re-open spiritual narratives to contemporary audiences—not by preaching, but by returning legibility, beauty, and presence to sacred images through quiet, meticulous care. It also reflects on the contrast between historic patronage rooted in devotion and much modern sponsorship driven by visibility, proposing instead a model of benefaction grounded in vulnerability, memory, and the ethics of stewardship.
