In the early days of October 1911, Manuel Dimech and his colleagues were functioning under intense pressure. All through the summer, since June, they had been working assiduously to bring together their ideas and hopes for a new foundation which they trusted would eventually change the social fibre of Maltese Society. They planned to call it Ix-Xirka tal-Imdawwlin, the Fellowship of the Enlightened.

The concept was indeed novel. What they wanted to create was a cross between a trade union, a social club and a political party. However, it was not so much the form of the new foundation that was foremost in their minds during those months but its final objectives. In this regard they were certainly not shy: they had in their sights nothing less than the ultimate transformation of the social, political, economic, and religious structures of Maltese society.

Were they too audacious? Of course they were – undoubtedly. But they would not settle for less. However, they had one strong point with which to make their case: they held all the cards. Firstly, they knew exactly what they were doing; secondly, they were ready to grasp the nettle and finally, they had nothing to lose. So they decided to throw their weight around. And there was no argument about it.

To be sure, they had a formidable leader; a man who was well prepared for the job in hand. Dimech had come from among the lowest of the low, he had grown into a professor of modern languages and, most importantly, he had a vision for Malta’s future that was unprecedented and unequalled. And it was not rubbish – it was soundly based on a philosophical understanding of Maltese society’s economic and political systems, its social mores, its religious practices and, essentially, its psychology.

In October 1911, he was at his very best – at the peak, one could say – of his public career. In the May of that year, he had returned from an almost five-year-long stint in Northern Italy, where he acquainted himself with workers’ movements. Before that, for more than six years he had sweated it out, toiling mostly among Malta’s labour force on a self-chosen educational mission. He published profusely, he taught modern languages, he issued his famous weekly Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin (The Flag of the Maltese), and he reared a family. His vigorous spirit kept him going but what was truly amazing was his mind, which was indefatigable, analytical, philosophical and incisive.

Understandably, during that spring of a hundred years ago the imminent launching of the Fellowship of the Enlightened could not but raise hell. Always game to pounce on anything close to innovative, especially if tinged with a hint of mutiny, the authorities of the Catholic Church muscled in to champion the response. At the beginning of October, without much ado, the Bishop of Malta publicly condemned Dimech’s Fellowship and publication. Usually that would have been the end of the story – one whinge from the bishop would have been enough to make water freeze.

But Dimech was no shirk, and far from being a quitter. Astonishingly, he called the bishop’s bluff. Just a few weeks after the condemnation, on 21 October 1911, he and his colleagues formally established his Fellowship, and the following day called a public meeting in Paola to launch the enterprise. Condemnation or not, it seems that hundreds attended this much-advertised gathering. Dimech and his colleagues were on cloud nine.

The Bishop of Malta, however, went up the wall. Never one to miss a beat, the very next day after the Paola meeting he issued yet another denunciation, this time formally excommunicating Dimech without reserve. To his mind, the man could be suffered no more.

To cut a long story short, for a whole year – and despite his young family’s unthinkable persecution and suffering – Dimech valiantly resisted the Church’s vicious onslaught. Eventually, the Church could take the humiliation no longer, and had to call a truce. Dimech was thus “pardoned”, and carried on with his work, with his Fellowship and his weekly newspaper stronger than ever.

A hundred years on, these momentous events will be commemorated by a conference at the Osborne Hotel, South Street, Valletta, on Friday, 21 October 21 at 6.30pm, to which the public is cordially invited. Yosanne Vella will talk about Dimech from the feminine perspective, Marco Galea will take about Dimech’s involvement in the world of theatre, Desmond Zammit Marmarà about Dimech as an educator and Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci will proffer a Marxist reading of Dimech. A discussion and refreshments will follow and admission is free.

The event will also include the launching of a book in Maltese, edited by Mark Montebello, and published by SKS. The book brings together a unique collection of Dimech’s original writings, including the novels Ivan and Prascovia and Majsi Cutajar and the statute of the Fellowship of the Enlightened, together with hundreds of quotations from Dimech’s works, especially his weekly publication The Flag of the Maltese.