Stella Maris, which is Latin for Star of the Sea, is a name long associated with the Virgin Mary, and perhaps no place wears it more fittingly than Sliema. Once a humble fishing village, Sliema’s very name is said to have come from the prayer “Sliema għalik Marija,” murmured by fishermen as they cast off to sea. In 1891, a beautiful titular statue of Our Lady was brought from Paris, and to this day, she is carried through Sliema’s streets every third Sunday of August for the parish feast.