At least 5,000 Maltese and foreigners living in Malta will attend the canonisation ceremony of Blessed Dun Gorg Preca at the Vatican tomorrow, according to the national airline’s estimates of passengers using its services in connection with the event.

Air Malta has had to organise four additional flights to the Italian capital to meet increasing demand due to the canonisation ceremony.

In less than a week, between last Thursday and this Tuesday, the airline’s scheduled flights to Rome increased from the 30 regularly scheduled services to 67. Apart from the four additional flights, 33 others were organised together with local tour operators.

President Edward Fenech Adami will be leading an official delegation to the Vatican to attend the canonisation of Dun Gorg. He will be accompanied by Mrs Fenech Adami, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Mrs Kate Gonzi, and Opposition Leader Alfred Sant.

Ambassador to the Holy See, Tonio Ganado and Mrs Ganado will also be part of the official delegation.

The President and Mrs Fenech Adami will be returning to Malta on Monday afternoon.

In the absence of the President, Dr George Hyzler will assume office as Acting President, while Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech will be Acting Prime Minister.

In tomorrow’s ceremony, another three blesseds, Simone De Lipnica, Carlo di Sant’ Andrea and Maria Eugenia di Gesù, who were Polish, Dutch and French respectively, will also be canonised by Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow.

The news that Dun Gorg would become Malta’s first saint was first made public on 10 January this year, when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the second miracle attributed to the humble priest who founded the Society for Christian Doctrine in Malta (MUSEUM). The miracle was then endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI on 14 February.

The Archbishop’s Curia and MUSEUM members have since been extremely busy preparing for the canonisation ceremony, which will be preceded by a prayer vigil in Rome this evening.

Tomorrow, about 50 Maltese priests will be among those giving Holy Communion during the ceremony, while two Maltese seminarists, Nicholas Doublet and Michael Zammit, and two Gozitan seminarists Max Grech and Francesco Pio Attard, will be among those who will lead the liturgical service.

All the other Maltese and Gozitan seminarists, together with about 100 priests, will be in the Cappella Papale during the ceremony.

The chasuble that will be worn by the Pope during the function is a gift from the MUSEUM society.

The Maltese concelebrants will be Archbishop Paul Cremona OP, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mercieca, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, Rev. Fr Joseph Chalmers, Mgr Lawrenz Gatt, Mgr Salv Borg, Rev. Fr Charles Gauci, Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino, Mgr Giuseppe Fenech and Mgr Vincent Deguara.

Tomorrow’s function will include two main parts – the preparation and the celebration of the canonisation and the Eucharist.

During the preparation, six texts written by Dun Gorg will be read out by MUSEUM members Emmanuel Curmi, Joe Kielnerowski and Pauline Grech.

The MUSEUM choir, made up of 50 members, will sing two hymns written by Dun Gorg – the Deus Noster (a hymn of praise to God) and Salve Papa Noster (a hymn to the Pope) – as well as the Salve Beate Giorgi, a hymn by means of which the Church will greet Dun Gorg for the last time as a blessed. Following the canonisation, the words of the hymn will change to Salve Sancte Giorgi.

The postulator of Dun Gorg’s canonisation cause, Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, will accompany the Pope during the actual canonisation ceremony, together with the three other postulators of the other saints’ canonisation cause.

Following the canonisation, the new saints’ relics will be placed on the altar. Fr Pawl Fenech, chaplain of the St Cajetan parish church in Hamrun, will carry Dun Gorg’s relic and will be accompanied by MUSEUM members Christopher Cutajar and Marisa Micallef.

The gospel will be sung by Maltese deacon Fr Mario Mangion.

A thanksgiving Mass will be celebrated in the Italian capital on Monday. The saint’s relic, consisting of some of Dun Gorg’s blood kept in a small glass vial, is being flown to Rome by Archbishop Paul Cremona OP, and will be brought back on Tuesday by Gozo Bishop Mario Grech.

The relic will be taken to Gozo and exhibited for public reverence on Tuesday afternoon and will be brought back to St John’s Co-Cathedral for public worship the following day. A thanksgiving Mass will be held on Thursday at the Granaries in Floriana at 7.30pm.

The relic will be carried in a procession from the cathedral to the Floriana Granaries. After the celebration, the relic will be taken to the MUSEUM chapel in Blata l-Bajda.

On Friday, at 7.30pm, the relic will be returned to St Cajetan parish church in Hamrun, which has been its home for many years.