CHARLES BRAY
Some History of the First Maltese Saint George Preca
Maltese people should be very proud for having their first Saint on June 3rd St. George Preca as one of the most popular Maltese priests of the 20th century, Dun Gorg Preca is by many believe to have brought a revolution in the nation’s Church by redefining the status and role of the laity.
Gorg Preca was born in Valletta on the February 12th 1880 and was the seventh of nine children. Early in his childhood, his family moved to Hamrun, where he started serving Mass as an altar boy, indicating he was interesting in the church from the very first years of his life.
After finishing his studies at the Lyceum Gorg Preca entered the seminary and was ordained a deacon. In the meantime he suffered lung failure and was discouraged from buying vestments or a missal in preparation for the priesthood because of his bleak prognosis.
However, on December 22nd 1906 he was ordained a priest, after a remarkable recovery.
During his time at the seminary, Gorg Preca would often offer his fellow companions words of wisdom, among them a phrase he has heard from his confessor and spiritual director Dun Alwig Galea: “God has chosen you to teach his people.” Dun Gorg Preca lived by these words and often repeated them to those who crossed his path.
The words are also reflected in an idea he toyed with early during priesthood, namely to prepare youths so they would be able to offer others religious formation. Just three months after being ordained a priest on March 7th 1907, the Society of Christian doctrine, a society of lay catechists, was born. On this day Dun Gorg Preca rented a house on Fra Diegu Street in Hamrun and gathered young men and women there to teaching them catechism.
In 1909, the priest was ordered to close down premises where he held his activities amid fears that the laymen trained by his society were not well-educated enough, despite Dun Gorg’s insistence on the permanent instruction of his “socji” [members]. He wrote 135 books in order to give them a solid formation.
The Maltese Curia eventually retracted the order; however the society, commonly referred to as M.U.S.E.U.M, was not approved by Archbishop Mauro Caruana and other ecclesiastical authorities until 1932, when a decree of the canonical [Legal] erection of the Society was issued on April 12th.
The acronym M.U.S.E.U.M refers to the word “museum”, through which the word of God is to be conserved, as well as to the Latin words “Magister utinam sequatur Evangeliium universus mundus”: Father, may the whole world follow the Gospel.
By the time World War Two downed, the group was carrying out its activities in all Maltese and Gozitan parishes. For 54 years, Dun Gorg Preca did his utmost so that the M.U.S.E.U.M would flourish. However in 1961 Dun Gorg started experiencing serious health problems and was forced to retired in-doors. Dun Gorg Preca died on July 26th 1962 in Santa Venera.
Today, the Society consists of approximately 110 centers and 1,110 members. Altogether, it is responsible for about 20,000 young men and women in the Maltese Islands, in Australia, Peru, Sudan, United Kingdom, Kenya and Albania.
Some History of the First Maltese Saint George Preca
Maltese people should be very proud for having their first Saint on June 3rd St. George Preca as one of the most popular Maltese priests of the 20th century, Dun Gorg Preca is by many believe to have brought a revolution in the nation’s Church by redefining the status and role of the laity.
Gorg Preca was born in Valletta on the February 12th 1880 and was the seventh of nine children. Early in his childhood, his family moved to Hamrun, where he started serving Mass as an altar boy, indicating he was interesting in the church from the very first years of his life.
After finishing his studies at the Lyceum Gorg Preca entered the seminary and was ordained a deacon. In the meantime he suffered lung failure and was discouraged from buying vestments or a missal in preparation for the priesthood because of his bleak prognosis.
However, on December 22nd 1906 he was ordained a priest, after a remarkable recovery.
During his time at the seminary, Gorg Preca would often offer his fellow companions words of wisdom, among them a phrase he has heard from his confessor and spiritual director Dun Alwig Galea: “God has chosen you to teach his people.” Dun Gorg Preca lived by these words and often repeated them to those who crossed his path.
The words are also reflected in an idea he toyed with early during priesthood, namely to prepare youths so they would be able to offer others religious formation. Just three months after being ordained a priest on March 7th 1907, the Society of Christian doctrine, a society of lay catechists, was born. On this day Dun Gorg Preca rented a house on Fra Diegu Street in Hamrun and gathered young men and women there to teaching them catechism.
In 1909, the priest was ordered to close down premises where he held his activities amid fears that the laymen trained by his society were not well-educated enough, despite Dun Gorg’s insistence on the permanent instruction of his “socji” [members]. He wrote 135 books in order to give them a solid formation.
The Maltese Curia eventually retracted the order; however the society, commonly referred to as M.U.S.E.U.M, was not approved by Archbishop Mauro Caruana and other ecclesiastical authorities until 1932, when a decree of the canonical [Legal] erection of the Society was issued on April 12th.
The acronym M.U.S.E.U.M refers to the word “museum”, through which the word of God is to be conserved, as well as to the Latin words “Magister utinam sequatur Evangeliium universus mundus”: Father, may the whole world follow the Gospel.
By the time World War Two downed, the group was carrying out its activities in all Maltese and Gozitan parishes. For 54 years, Dun Gorg Preca did his utmost so that the M.U.S.E.U.M would flourish. However in 1961 Dun Gorg started experiencing serious health problems and was forced to retired in-doors. Dun Gorg Preca died on July 26th 1962 in Santa Venera.
Today, the Society consists of approximately 110 centers and 1,110 members. Altogether, it is responsible for about 20,000 young men and women in the Maltese Islands, in Australia, Peru, Sudan, United Kingdom, Kenya and Albania.