Editing Comino (section)

===Comino chapel===
[[File:Kapelle auf Comino.jpg|thumb|right|[[Comino Chapel]]]]
{{main|Comino Chapel}}

A chapel dedicated to the Assumption of St Mary existed in the proximity of the Bay of St Mary since at least 1296. Indeed, it was this chapel which gave the bay its name and not opposite.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Festa Santa Marija|last=Attard|first=Anton F|date=2012|title=Il-Castrum Terre Gaudisii u l-Origini tal-Matrici tal-Assunta f'Ghawdex|url=https://www.yumpu.com/it/document/read/51521541/gawdex-leone-philharmonic-society/9|issue=9|pages=70–77|publisher=Leone Philharmonic Society}}</ref>

A [[Roman Catholic]] chapel dedicated to the [[Comino Chapel|Holy Family Upon its Return from Egypt]] is located above Santa Marija Bay. Built in 1618, and enlarged in 1667 and again in 1716, the chapel was originally dedicated to the [[Annunciation]]. It has been deconsecrated and reconsecrated at least once in its history, when Comino was devoid of residents. The earliest record of a chapel on this site dates back to the 12th century, and can be seen in a navigational map of the period, located in the [[National Maritime Museum]] and [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Royal Observatory]] in [[Greenwich]], [[London]].<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.gozo.gov.mt/pages.aspx?page=566| publisher= Ministry for [[Gozo]]| title= il-Gżira ta' Kemmuna| website= gozo.gov.mt| date= | access-date= | archive-date= 31 May 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090531104608/http://www.gozo.gov.mt/pages.aspx?page=566| url-status= dead}}</ref>

In the past, and well into the 20th century, whenever the seas were too rough for the Gozitan priest to make the crossing to Comino for the celebration of [[Holy Mass]], the local community would gather on the rocks at a part of the Island known as ''Tal-Ħmara'', and gaze across the channel towards the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rocks (Maltese: ''il-Madonna tal-Blat''), in Ħondoq ir-Rummien, Gozo, where Mass was being celebrated. They followed along with the progression of the Mass by means of a complex flag code.