Grand Master uncovered: Ximénez’s tomb finally found in cathedral crypt
Despite the funeral of Fra Matthew Festing last week being a solemn occasion, the burial of the 79th grand master of the Knights of St John also closed the book on the mystery of the final resting place of one of Malta’s most unpopular grand masters.
Francisco Ximénez de Texada, who served as grand master of the Order between 1773 and 1775, had long been suspected to be buried in the crypt of St John’s Co-Cathedral, like every other grand master who died in Malta has been. However, Ximénez’s burial site was not marked, nor are there any funerary monuments dedicated to him in the crypt.
But as the crypt was being prepared to inter Festing, new insights into the previous burials carried out there were uncovered and documented, curator Cynthia de Giorgio said in a new research paper on the discovery.
“Ximénez is listed in the register of deaths as having died on 9 November 1775. His is a strange case as he is the only Grand Master of the Order to have died in Malta and does not have a proper funerary monument either in the Grand Master’s crypt or in the nave of the Church,” de Giorgio said. The register notes indicate that Ximénez died at age 72 after succumbing to pulmonic fever.