Lorenzo de Apapis

The Parish Church of St George in Rabat, Gozo, where de Apapis was parish priest. The building which stood during his time no longer exists; the present church was constructed in its stead during the 17th century and was altered in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Don Lorenzo de Apapis ( 1501 – 1586) was a Gozitan parish priest, vicar foraneus, and notary. He was captured and enslaved during the Ottoman Empire's attack on Gozo in 1551, and was ransomed and returned to Malta by 1553.

Biography De Apapis was born in around 1501 to Leonardo Apap and his wife Garita née Debuis. He is believed to have trained to become a priest through an apprenticeship-like system, and he likely also studied law. From 1540 he practiced the profession of a notary public, and at one point he was the only Gozitan-born notary on the island. A copy made by de Apapis of a 15th-century will is the oldest surviving Gozitan record preserved in the Maltese Islands.

Legacy An inscribed marble plaque commemorating de Apapis was installed at St George's Basilica in 2001. This features a bronze relief by artist Saviour Farrugia.