From early times, the small village but with an old civility of Birzebbuga made part of the church of Zejtun dedicated to Saint Catherine. However there was a long way to Zurrieq and the population of Birzebbuga was rapidly increasing, there was the need that birzebbuga should become a parish on its own and that should not be dependent in any way on any other village.

It was by the great work made by Mons. Dun Spir Penza, from Cospicua, villager in this village that worked very hard so that Birzebbuga would be a parish on its own. Therefore, this village that was getting bigger and bigger took the small church named for the Lady of Sorrow which can be found in the vicinities, so then it was given the dignity of parish and Fr. Karm Bugelli was named as its first archpriest.

However, this church (originally a storage place) was too small to handle the population which was increasing constantly. Therefore everyone felt the need to build a new and bigger church. Funds were being collected, firstly by Fr. Karm Bugelli and afterwards by Fr. Angelo Fenech that continued the works.

The architect Godwin Galiza P.A.A made the churchs’ site plans adopting the siculo-norman. Its title had to be That of Saint Peter (in chains). This name as chosen by bishop Caruana himself, who, when he saw the site plans, gave a donation of £30. The amount of £18,000 were collected and a place in tal-Brolli area was bought in a field called “Il-beneficcju of Saint Angelo” of Hal-Far and and in the 29th August 1926 the first stone was laid by the bishop Dom Mawru Caruana O.S.B.
The new church was build in such a record time, that on the 16th June 1938, altough not hundred percent ready, The Blessed Sacrament was solemnly transported from the old church to the newly built one.

This church is in the form of a long rectangle. It is 160 feet long by 58 feet wide. It has got three altars – on the outside one can only find only on bell tower. Two interesting things are the main altar and the floor which is made entirely from marble.