'Dun Gorg - Il-bniedem tal-poplu'
Author: Frans Sammut
Publisher: Sensiela Kotba Socjalisti / 2001
Pages: 108
'San Gorg Preca - Mudell ghal hajjitna'
Author: Pawlu Mifsud
Publisher: MUSEUM Fgura / 2010
Pages: 132
On 3 June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI declared Dun Gorg Preca, a priest from Malta, a saint of the Catholic Church.
It was a cold and rainy day and most of the participants, including Malta's highest authorities, got thoroughly soaked. Yet there was inordinate pride among the 5,000 pilgrims from Malta including some 50 members of the society set up by the new saint and 20 priests from Malta.
These two slim books are among the many that celebrate the only canonised saint Malta has so far.
They are widely different in their approach.
The first volume was published by the book production house of the Socialist Party.
It was written by the well-known author, Frans Sammut, who penned such classics as Il-Gagga (1971) and Samuraj (1974).
Sammut died on 4 May 2011, so this book may well be one of the last books he wrote. When the book was published, Dun Gorg had not yet been beatified. The beatification ceremony was carried out by an ailing Pope John Paul II during his second visit to Malta on 9 May 2001.
But well before the Church's ceremonies, even before his death in 1962, the people of Malta had unanimously decided Dun Gorg was a living saint.
Coming from Hamrun, where he lived then, I well remember him. People were in awe of him and whenever he spoke people would stand in complete silence.
The accent then was on his miracle working side. I remember crowding with other children into his front room in High Street on the eve of the Lyceum exam to be blessed by him.
People used to revere him for his power to communicate with the Almighty and relate whether a person that had just died ended up in heaven.
Nearer his canonisation the accent seems to have shifted to his teachings and the Society of Christian Doctrine (the MUSEUM) that he set up.
Sammut came to Dun Gorg very much from outside the MUSEUM. As far as I know he was never a member of the society. But in the research prior to writing this book he tried to go beyond the myths and the legends and focus on the priest as a man of the people.
His account could be considered as reductive by the members of the Society and the faithful in general but offers a rather secular appraisal of the priest.
Born and growing up at a time of great poverty and ignorance, Dun Gorg did not emulate most other priests who preferred to hobnob with the rich and the famous and shun the common man.
On the contrary, Dun Gorg sought out the poorest and the needy especially the workers at the dockyard and he structured his Society around them.
The second book I am reviewing today is a booklet issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Society in Fgura. It also rides on the coat-tails of the euphoria generated by the canonisation.
Coming, as I said, from Hamrun I have to correct a slight mistake in the book. The Little Sisters of the Poor with their Home for the Elderly in Saint Paul Square, are still known as Piccoli Suore, not Piccoli Cuori (Pg 20).
Apart from having many hagiographic details about the saint, the book can also serve as a prayer book by ending every section with a prayer from the saint.
Now the coda: in his book that he published this year, Post-War Protagonists of Maltese Photography, Kevin Casha writes: "Mario Blackman was rather a proud, confident man, albeit sometimes a bit short on temper. He had a reputation for strongly standing up for his rights and convictions. On several occasions, this led to court litigation on various issues related particularly to business. One such instance was with, of all persons, Dun Gorg Preca. Preca used to live rent-free in a Blackman-owned property next door to the latter's studio. At one time, Mario Blackman asked Preca for the return of a lateral room in order to enlarge the studio premises, informing Preca that he could keep the rest of the house. For some reason or other, the famed priest refused to give back the room and the two litigants went to court with Blackman eventually winning the case. Subsequently, Preca vacated the house and went to reside in Santa Venera. A plaque still exists at the same premises which had been Preca's former residence."
Bet this story does not appear in the hagiographies.