On Sunday morning of the 19th of January 1941, Birgu suffered one of the fiercest attacks which left it in a devastated state. The Convent and the Church of the Annunciation were hit and the dormitories, museum, novitiate, the Oratory of the Fraternity of the Rosary and the sacristy were reduced to a pile of rubble. Due to the convent’s perilous condition, the friars who lived there had to leave and move to the Convent in Rabat.