St George Preca - Malta's first saint

St Gorg Preca (1880-1962)

Born in Valletta on 12 February 1880, Gorg was the seventh child in a middle-class family of nine. His father, Vincenzo Preca, was first a merchant and then a sanitary inspector. His mother, Natalina Ceravolo was a teacher. He was baptized 5 days later. In 1888, the Preca family moved to Hamrun, then a fast-growing town. Gorg received his Confirmation and his first Holy Communion at the parish church of St Cajetan. One day when he was 17 years old, Gorg was walking along the Mall Gardens in Floriana where he met one of his lyceum professors, Fr Ercole Mompalao, who told him: “Preca, you will grow up and will be befriended by people who respect God. You will be blessed because of them, and they because of you...”

Feeling that he was being called to join the priesthood, he moved from the lyceum to the seminary where as a young student, he distinguished himself in his studies, especially in Latin. His ordination seemed in jeopardy as Gorg, who had been sickly throughout his childhood, was diagnosed as suffering from lung failure and his father was told that Gorg would probably not have a long life ahead of him. However, the young cleric was to live to celebrate his first Mass on 22 December 1906 and to die at the venerable age of 82 years. Dun Gorg would joke about the incident, saying “My father died, the professor has died and I, with just one lung, am still alive to teach people!”
Dun Gorg started gathering young people in a room to read the Bible and reflect on it. He set his eye on their leader, Eugenio Borg, He used to take him out for walks in the countryside and explain the Gospel of John to him. Eventually, he would become the first Superior General of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae.

St Gorg blessing the new St Michael School, run by MUSEUM members.

Soon the group of youths who met in the vicinity of the St Cajetan parish church grew so much that premises had to be rented where their meetings could be held. Since it was an old house, they called it Muzew (Museum,) and this led to Dun Gorg to create an acronym for his new organization, called MUSEUM meaning Magister Utinam, Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus (Teacher, O that the whole world would follow the Gospel!). In 1910, Dun Gorg also opened a female section, which was placed under the responsibility of Giannina Cutajar. However in 1909, Dun Gorg was ordered to close his MUSEUM centres, which he duly did without hesitation. But parish priests themselves protested with the ecclesiastical authorities and the ban was revoked.

Between 1914 and 1915, a number of daily newspapers carried articles and letters denigrating the new society. Dun Gorg ordered his members to take a vow of meekness, gladly forgiving anybody who poked fun at them. Eventually, the inquest resulted in a glowing report for the young society and Bishop Dom Mauro Caruana canonically erected the Society of Christian Doctrine on 12 April 1932.
On Christmas Eve of 1921, in Hamrun was held the first procession with a statue of the baby Jesus, which he dubbed as “a demonstration in honor of the Baby Jesus.” The practice spread fairly quickly and has become a regular fixture in Christmas festivities in Malta. He also wished that no family would remain without a crib and a statue of the Holy Child, so he encouraged MUSEUM members to give every child attending their centres a crib with a baby Jesus to take home.

The day St Gorg Preca was canonized on June 3, 2007.

Dun Gorg proved to be a man ahead of his time in a number of ways. Besides preceding teachings of the Vatican Council II by over 50 years, in 1957 (almost 50 years prior to Pope John Paul II) he suggested the use of five “Mysteries of Light” for the private recitation of the Rosary, exactly as the Pope implemented them. Dun Gorg passed away on 26 July 1962 at about 7.45pm. Some 20,000 people attended his funeral in Hamrun.

Today, there are over 100 MUSEUM centres and it has 1,100 members who teach around 20,000 boys and girls in Malta, Gozo, Australia, Peru, the Sudan, the United Kingdom, Kenya and Albania. St Gorg Preca was canonized on June 3, 2007 at St Peter’s Square during a rainstorm that left everyone drenched. Incidentally on June 3, this year, general elections will be held in Malta, and we pray that St Gorg will intervene for the Maltese people on that day, as he has done with his teachings, writings and saintly presence.