Sliema, Malta, 19.11.1926 – Mater Dei Hospital, Malta, 06.10.2012

On 6th October 2012, in Mater Dei Hospital, Malta, Fr. Ivo Tonna died aged 85 years, of which he spent 68 as a professed friar of the Province of Saint Paul the Apostle, in Malta, and 61 as a priest.

Biography

Robert Tonna was born in Sliema, Malta, on 19th November 1926, son of Edward and Olga Papagiorcopulo. He entered the Order as a novice in the Maltese Franciscan Province on 8th September 1943, taking the name Ivo, and made his first Temporary Profession on 10th September 1944. He studied philosophy and theology at the Franciscan Studium in Rabat, Malta (1944-1951). On 28th December 1947 he made his Solemn Profession and was ordained priest on 5th August 1951.

After his ordination Ivo Tonna was sent for higher studies at the Antonianum. He specialised in Philosophy, gaining in 1955 a Ph.D. by defending his thesis entitled S. Bonaventurae doctrina de entis individuatione, published in Rome in 1982 as a pars dissertationis. He was Secretary of the Province from 1961 to 1967, Provincial Definitor (1967-1970) and Secretary to Fr. Alphonse Maria Camilleri, General Visitator to the Holy Land Custody (1965) and the Irish Province (1966). For many years he lectured philosophy at the Studium of the Franciscan Seminary and was also chaplain to the Royal Air Force during the years 1959-1979, in which there was a British Naval Base in Malta. He was Minister Provincial of the Maltese Province from 1973-1979. Upon the conclusion of his mandate he was called to the Collegio S. Bonaventura at Grottaferrata, as President of the community of Franciscan and Dominican scholars and researchers. In 1986 he was transferred to the Antonianum, where he lectured philosophy until 2004 when he retired and went back to Malta. He published a manual of Franciscan philosophy, entitled Lineamenti di Filosofia Francescana. Sintesi dottrinale del pensiero francescano nei secoli XIII-XIV, Tau Edition, Malta 1992.

Fr. Ivo Tonna was an eminent scholar of Latin grammar and literature. For his entire life he dedicated his energies to teaching Latin to the Franciscan students, both in Malta as well as at the Antonianum. He was often called to participate in General Chapters of the Order in the quality of expert of the Latin language.

For these last years Fr. Ivo was retired at the Franciscan friary of Sliema, but he was still active in examining and correcting Latin documents, particularly in close collaboration with the historian of the Province, Fr. George Aquilina, who passed away just one week before him. He remained active for as long as his deteriorating health permitted. His long years of dedicated service to the Order and the Province have been appreciated by the one and all.

Fr. Noel Muscat ofm