Gorg Aquilina OFM, Il Frangiskani Maltin (Ta’ Giezu) 1482c-1965c (sal-Koncilju Vatikan II), Klabb Kotba Maltin, Malta 2011, pp. 773 + xxxi.
The Maltese Franciscan Province is now proudly presenting its complete documented history, spanning a period of nearly half a millennium, in what has been termed by Professor Stanley Fiorni in the presentation as the magnum opus of Patri Gorg Aquilina OFM, historian of the Maltese Franciscan Province.
The 773 page volume is the result of a lifetime of over 40 years of untiring research in archives in Malta, Sicily, Italy and the Vatican, and comes as the coronation of the continual effort of Patri Gorg to document any material linked with the history of the Franciscan presence in Malta. The history of the Franciscan Friars Minor in Malta goes back more than 5 centuries. It is intimately linked with the history of our islands during the Middle Ages.
Whoever knows Gorg Aquilina in our Franciscan friary of Saint Mary of Jesus (Ta’ Giezu) in Valletta, knows him as a laborious historian, always studying old documents in the Provincial library and archives, or in the National Library, the Notarial Archives, the Monastery of St. Ursola, where he has been chaplain of the nuns for over 30 years. Gorg Aquilina has made extensive research in the State Archives in Palermo, Rome and other Italian towns, as well as in the Secret Archives of the Vatican. It was in the Vatican that he discovered important documents shedding light on the arrival of the Friars Minor in our islands towards the end of the 15th century. With the collaboration of other eminent historians, like Profs. Fiorini, Gorg Aquilina published the earliest documented history of Franciscan presence in Malta, particularly with reference to the friary of Saint Mary of Jesus in Rabat.
The voluminous work is important first of all for its documentary material and bibliography. The scientific apparatus in the notes, the unending list of publications, and especially the published transcription of the original documents that have laid forgotten for centuries is appreciated by all those who have an inkling of what it means to engage in such a mammoth scientific undertaking. At the same time the volume is written in such a way that it can be easily read by one and all, and especially by who is interested in Maltese ecclesiastical history.
The volume recounts the history of the arrival of the first Franciscans in Malta, the history of the reform movement of the Regular Observance in the Order of Friars Minor in the island of Sicily, the history of Franciscan presence in Malta during the period of the Knights of St. John, the history of the untiring and heroic effort of the Maltese Franciscans to gain autonomy from the Sicilian mother province, until their success in becoming a Custody and an independent Province.
One also finds interesting information regarding the Maltese Franciscan friaries and churches, in a special way regarding the two oldest and most important, namely the churches of Saint Mary of Jesus (Ta’ Giezu) of Rabat and Valletta. Hence the title “Ta’ Giezu” between parenthesis, underlining the characteristic identity of the origins of Observant Franciscanism in Sicily and Malta, that stuck as a popular reference to all Observant Franciscan friaries in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Besides the friaries in Malta and Gozo the volume also mentions the more recent history of the friaries of the Maltese Franciscan Province in Canada, the UK and Australia, as well as the glorious history of the missionary activity of the Maltese Franciscans, particularly in the Holy Land Custody, in the Far East, in North Africa, and in Central America.
Although Gorg Aquilina humbly writes in the dedication to the volume that he does not expect any thanks from anyone for this immense effort, it is our duty to express our gratitude to this sterling service that he has rendered to our Franciscan Province and to Maltese ecclesiastical history in general. In his Preface to the volume, the Minister Provincial Fr. Sandro Overend OFM, wrote: “In the name of the entire Maltese Franciscan Province I thank our Franciscan brother Patri Gorg, who is a serious and precise scholar in his historical research. His effort is a proof of the special love that he always showed towards the Maltese Franciscan Province and towards all that which is Franciscan. His intention is clearly evident since in his writings he tries to do his best to arrive as close as possible to the historical truth of the events he documents. That is why I congratulate him heartily for this volume that honours our country and the Franciscan presence in our islands.”