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Sir Temi Zammit - Historian, Medical Researcher

Antonio Sciortino - Sculptor

Dun Mikiel Xerri - Rebel Priest (executed by the French)

Dun Karm Psaila - National Poet

Dun Ġorġ Preca - Religious Teacher

Ms Mabel Strickland - Politician

Esprit Barthet - Painter

Maltese Personalities in History

Sir Temi Zammit

Themistocles Zammit was born in 1864 and will forever be remembered for his contribution towards the elimination of Undulant Fever from the Maltese islands.

Temi Zammit was an all-rounder; an accomplished archaeologist, a historian, a dedicated doctor of medicine, researcher and writer.

He discovered the Microcossus Melitensis in the blood of the goat. Humans drinking un-pasteurised goat's milk would be infected with the microbe, which Sir David Bruce established as the cause of the fatal Mediterranean (or Undulant) Fever. In those days, milk was sold in villages, towns and cities (including Mdina) when goats were herded and milked in the street. Thereafter, milk had to be boiled.

Themistocles was rector of the University of Malta, but in 1926 he gave up his post to be able to dedicate his time to the Museum. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra temples, Ħal Saflieni (Hypogeum - the underground shrine) and the Tarxien Temples, the Roman House and S. Paul's Catacombs in Rabat, all give evidence of his dedication to unearthing our national heritage.

Then in 1930 he was knighted by George V. Five years later, on the 2nd November 1935, at 71 years of age, Sir Temi Zammit passed away.

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Antonio Sciortino, Skultur Malti

Sciortino can easily be dubbed Malta's National Sculptor, for his works include some of the most famous monuments on the island.

Competing abroad, he earned himself international repute while gracing his nation. Born in 1879 in the Maltese village of Żebbuġ (Ħaż-Żebbuġ), Antonio never married, dedicating his life to his first love, sculpture.

He spent around 25 years in Rome, where he had his studio and was employed as the director of the British Academy. He would not renounce his Maltese nationality and, on the advent of Italy's invasion of Abyssinia (later named Ethiopia) Sciortino returned to Malta, where he was assigned to the post of curator at the National Museum.

He is known by most Maltese, old and young, cultured or otherwise, as the greatest sculptor the nation ever produced. A walk in the gardens of Floriana and Valletta will bring us into contact with many of his works, amongst which are the monuments to Sir Adrian Dingli and Sir Gerald Strickland.

Antonio Sciortino died at the age of 68, on August 11th 1947, and is buried at the Żebbuġ cemetery, in his village home.

Some of Sciortino's Works:

Kristu Re
(Christ the King)

This statue, depicting the standing Christ, is mounted on a plinth with the figure of a woman, representing Malta, kneeling humbly before Him. The monument was erected in 1913 to mark the Eucharistic Congress then held at Malta and stands just outside Valletta's City Gate.

Il-Monument ta' l-Għassedju l-Kbir
(The Great Siege Monument)

Proudly guarding the entrance to the Law Courts, in the heart of the city, stands the muscular, bare-chested warrior with his heavy, two-handed sword pinned on the ground before him. The man represents "strength" and he is flanked by two young women emerging from behind him. They represent the virtues of "faith" and "civilization".

The monument stands at the side door of S.John's co-cathedral, on the city's main street.

Les Gavroches
(Parisian street urchins)

This monument shows three small children hurrying forward, with the youngest, barely three, lagging behind. The idea behind this statue was the extreme hardship faced at the turn of the (twentieth) century. "Le Gavroches" may be seen at the Upper Barracca Gardens at the side entrance to Valletta.

Arabian Horses

Housed at the National Museum of Fine Arts, this is a statue full of Power. Moorish riders are seen galloping ferociously on bare horseback as if racing the wind.

Many other statues and plaster models remain, dealing with abstract concepts.

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Dun Ġorġ Preca

Dun Ġorġ was born in Valletta on February 12th, 1880. At the age of 26, in December of 1906, he was ordained a Priest and he threw himself heart-and-soul in pursuit of educating the people of his days in Holy Doctrine, realising that there was too much ignorance about.


Teacher

Thus was founded the Society of Christian Doctrine - or, as it is better known, the M.U.S.E.U.M., an acronym for: Magister Utinam Sequator Evangelium Universus Mundus, translating from Latin to: "Master, if only the entire world would follow Your Gospel."


Messanger of God

The society's slogan: Verbum Dei caro factum est, or "The word of God has been turned to flesh" was taken beyond the shores of Malta as Dun Ġorġ urged some of his followers to preach the Word in Australia. At the time, in 1952, the Australian continent was some three months away from Malta by sea, yet many young Maltese were emigrating in search of a better future.


Young Leader

In the style of Don Bosco, Dun Ġorġ would assemble young people to keep them out of mischief's way and teach them the Christian Doctrine. To help him at this, he assigned two lay people (i.e. non-clergy), Ewġenju Borg and Ġannina Cutajar, to organise both young men and women to follow and spread the word of Christ among the rest.

The dedication required from his followers, made it necessary for the socii, or members, to remain celibate (i.e. abstinent and chaste) as theirs was to be a religious vocation.


Obedience

But as many were still religiously and socially ignorant in the early 1900s, popular suspicion coupled with Malta's political turmoil in 1906 compelled the Church to order Dun Ġorġ to close down his centres. It was as if Malta's ecclesiastical authorities were acting to safeguard their exclusive right to teach the Gospel and fearing that his 'new' approach (of handing down the teaching of the Holy Doctrine to secular people) was dangerous.

Without a word of resistance, Dun Ġorġ closed his centres, believing that if God willed it, the society would revive. His obedience made the Church authorities see the genuineness of his quest and withdrew the order. On the 12th April, 1932, the M.U.S.E.U.M. was even officially recognized by the Catholic Church as one of the main centres for the teaching of Hold Doctrine.


Legacy

In the 1950s the society opened Saint Michael School.

Devotion to Our Lady was very much emphasised in Dun Ġorġ's teachings and writings.

Another tradition this holy man left us, since 1921, was the Christmas procession where the statue of Baby Jesus in his manger is paraded around the streets of Malta's towns and villages, accompanied by carol singing and prayers.


Beatification

Pope John Paul II beatified Dun Ġorġ on May 9th 2001, thereby giving him (and two other Maltese clerics) accession to sainthood following procedures where miraculous intervention has to be proven.

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Dun Karm Psaila, Poeta Nazzjonali Malti

Malta's National Poet, Dun Karm, was born on the 18th October 1871 to Lunzjata and Filippu Psaila in the Maltese village of Żebbuġ (Ħaż-Żebbuġ). At the age of 90, on the 13th October 1961, the poet died, leaving us a legacy of bold and beautiful verse.

He composed quasi-romantic praises to his beloved Malta. But he also dealt some harsh criticism for the rapid deterioration of moral values during his day; scolding her in ways hard to imagine from the hero-poet.

Dun Karm championed Malta's native language, her flag and traditions. In a sense, his works may be seen as a chronicle of the times, depicting Maltese life as well as some major events in the early 20th century. Like all poets, he sang to the 'morning' (l-Għodwa), the hot 'summer nights' (Nofs il-Lejl Sajfi), the 'rainbow' (Qawsalla), to 'love' (il-Għanja ta' l-Imħabba), and to the 'peasant girl' (it-Tifla tar-Raba)...

Yet he also wrote about that wondrous new gadget of the time, the 'radio' (O Radjo!), and of traditional religious rites such as the Holy Viaticum (il-Vjatku), which was when a priest would carry the Holy Eucharist to a dying person to administer the last rites, and the E-Boat attack (E-Boats) when 17 of them perished at our shores during a night attack during WW2...

His work, in a sense, plays the part of a history book, for he also told of heroic episodes from Malta's past, such as his narratives from the Great Siege of 1565. For example, he wrote about the tragic fall of Fort Saint Elmo in a 'victory song' (il-Għanja tar-Rebħa) with its gruesome detail. And he recounted the '8th September Victory' (Dehra tat-VIII ta' Settembru, 1565) depicting La Valette as the brave, tireless lion, standing on the bastions, sword in hand, beholding the retreating invader while the victory bells ring for joy.

Dun Karm, himself proud to be Maltese, pays tribute to some of Malta's faithful and famous sons.

However, the poet-priest also wrote a number of Religious Poems, among which is the still popular hymn, t'Adoriam Ostia Divina (Nadurawk, ja Ħobż tas-Sema), sung to the score of Mro. Ġużeppi Caruana, and calling to mind the Eucharistic Congress held in Malta in 1913.   Dun Karm wrote in Latin, Italian and Maltese.

* * *

In May 1894 he was ordained a priest and between 1896 and 1921, Dun Karm taught a number of subjects at the Seminary, where he himself had studied in his youth. In 1910 Monsignor La Fontaine, visiting the Seminary, introduced a reform whereby tutors could no longer lodge there, so Dun Karm was constrained to seek residence elsewhere. He lived for 26 years at number 15, Old Bakery Street, Valletta.

But living in the city, during the pre-War years, were rather sad times for the poet, who in 1915 expressed his uneasiness in his work entitled "Lill-Kanarin Tiegħi" (To My Canary).

Following the noble efforts of Franġisku Saverju Caruana to organise writers into a guild, the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti (or the Alliance of Writers in Maltese) was set up in 1921. Dun Karm was one of the co-founders of the guild and its second president, between 1928 and 1942, following Ġuże' Muscat Azzopardi (1853-1927). The main objectives of the association were (a) to agree on proper rules for the 'written' Maltese, which at the time followed Italian spelling rules, and (b) to promote it at a time when Italian was the written and spoken language of the learned. Along with Latin, Italian was the language of the Catholic Church, and Maltese was considered a lowly tongue, disparaged as the language of the kitchen. Dun Karm promoted the native tongue ...and without abhorrence of any other.

His efforts to promote the Maltese language were almost patriotic. In his poem entitled 'Għaliex?' ('Why?') and subtitled 'Jedd il-Lsien Malti' ('The Privilege of the Maltese Language') he pleads to us, his fellow citizens, never to renounce the mother tongue in place of another foreign language. Dun Karm reminds us how the language so fondly passed on to us by our mothers is that same one we used as little children to express grief and happiness, the one that grew with us, woven into the very fibres of our life. Why, then, should we deny that which makes us truly Maltese? By all means, he concedes, we may love those languages that may prove valuable to us, but never should we expel that which is intrinsic to us.

In 1922, Dun Karm's work was acknowledged when the Archbishop made him Hon. Monsignor for the Cathedral. Then in 1928 he was made Asst. Librarian (Assistant Biblijotekarju).

In 1923, Dun Karm wrote the Maltese National Anthem, in the form of a prayer, to the score of Dr. Robert Sammut. On the 27th February 1941 it was officially declared as Malta's National Anthem and confirmed by the Constitutions of 1964 and 1974.

He left Valletta in 1936 and moved to Sliema. The following year, on February 15th, his dedicated housekeeper, Ġannina Pisani, died following poor health.

Thus lived and died a lover of Malta and everything Maltese.

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Other Personalities from More Recent Times

Maltese Personalities in History