This year, Gozo’s Sacred Heart Seminary is commemorating its 150th anniversary. The immense influence of this seminary in the educational, religious and cultural fields during these years cannot be fathomed. Two Presidents, a Prime Minister and a host of politicians, men from various professions, civil servants and businessmen were among the hundreds of students who attended the Seminary.

Dun Pawl Micallef.

Throughout these years, about 615 Gozitan priests and many others from Malta received formation at the Gozo Seminary. This ‘heart of the diocese’ offered to the Church four bishops, while others fruitfully performed pastoral work in Gozo and beyond its shores so as to fulfil their mission where the ministers of Christ are not as bountiful as at home.

A humble, meritorious and saintly priest who was among those pastorally nurtured at the Seminary was Dun Pawl Micallef. Dun Pawl, the youngest of four siblings, was born in Victoria on January 24, 1897. The next day, his parents, Pietro and Annunziata Agius, had him baptised at St George’s parish by Archpriest Fr Felice Refalo. He was named Paul Michael Anton, and his godparents were Anton Micallef and Marianna Cefai.

His schooling started at the State primary school and continued at the Gozo Lyceum until, feeling the priestly call, he entered the Seminary. This enthusiastic young man was ordained priest on December 22, 1923, at the Gozo Cathedral by Gozo Bishop Fra Giovanni Maria Camilleri, OESA.

The baroque-style chalice that Dun Pawl used during his first solemn thanksgiving Mass. It was a gift from his brother Joseph Micallef, a lawyer by profession.

On Christmas Eve, 1923, Dun Pawl celebrated his first solemn thanksgiving Mass at St George’s parish church. The homily was delivered by Mgr Arcpriest Alfons Maria Hili.

While still a student, Dun Pawl got to know, through reading, about St John Bosco and the Salesian Order. Being a member of a poor farming community and conscious of the need for a cultural reform in his country, he realised that ignorance, which was the origin of hardship, could be overcome by the creation of more decent leisure and better pastimes.

In the years 1921 to 1933 he wrote numerous articles about the Salesian Order’s mission throughout the world. Dun Pawl also translated into Maltese the three-act play Domenico Savio, originally written in Italian by Amilcare Marezcalchi. He completed it on December 14, 1934, and after obtaining the nihil obstat (no objection) from the Bishop’s Curia it was staged for the first time in April 1935, thus paving the way for the formation of the Don Bosco Dramatic Company with Dun Pawl himself as its first director.

Dun Pawl’s motto was Educate through Love and Play

Since 1929, Dun Pawl took care of the Għaqda tal-Paġġi ta’ Ġesù Sagramentat at the church of the Nativity of Our Lady, better known as Ta’ Savina. Furthermore, Dun Pawl’s direct association with the children of St George’s parish was kept up through his collaboration with Fr Joseph Spiteri, a Maltese priest from Naxxar who resided in Gozo and who in November 1933 was asked by Mgr Hili, archpriest of Victoria, to help with catechism lessons. Together they taught catechism at St George’s parish church to children who were preparing to receive their First Communion.

Works on the foundations of Oratorio Don Bosco in 1947.

Later, Dun Pawl came up with the idea of acquiring a premises where children could meet for cultural and recreational activities with the intention of giving religious education and spiritual formation to children in Victoria. In fact, it was on April 1, Easter Sunday of the Jubilee Year 1934, when the small doors of no. 12/13, Charity Street, opened to welcome children for the first time.

At the time, Rome was abuzz with festivities marking the canonisation of Don Giovanni Bosco. St John Bosco was a priest from Turin who founded the Congregation of St Francis de Sales, or the Salesians. Don Bosco, as he is commonly known, is today one of the most popular saints, especially with the young to whom he dedicated his entire priestly mission.

With this in mind, the then Gozo Bishop Michael Gonzi suggested that the oratory be named after Don Bos­co. Dun Pawl’s educational plan was based on Don Bosco’s Preventive System, which was becoming popular in the Christian world. Dun Pawl’s motto was Educate through Love and Play. Since he believed that the rolling of drums had more charm than the pealing of bells, he organised bands, set up drama festivals, encouraged football and introduced beneficial pastimes.

Dun Pawl and the boys who were under his care remained in Charity Street until 1936 when they moved to a larger premises in Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia Street. One of the rooms of this house was turned into a chapel. Dun Pawl himself purchased an altar and placed an image of Don Bosco.

Dun Pawl’s monument on the façade of the Oratory was inaugurated on November 20, 1964, by Alexander Cachia Zammit, Minister of Works and Social Policy, and blessed by Gozo Bishop Joseph Pace.

During this time, Dun Pawl commissioned renowned Gozitan statuarian Agostino Camilleri to make a statue of St John Bosco, the expenses of which her forked out himself. The statue was blessed by archpriest Hili at St George’s parish church and the saint’s feast was organised there, the first one celebrated on May 3, 1936, until the new oratory was inaugurated.

Dun Pawl took it upon himself to become the animator of the place, organising games and theatricals. On August 13, 1936, Fr Spiteri had to retire as he was stricken by illness. So Dun Pawl had to run the oratory by himself, and in 1940 it had to be transferred once more to a rather smaller premises in Tomb Square. At that time Malta and Gozo were going through hardship and destruction, death and sorrow due to World War II.

As time went by, the oratory was frequented by many youths. Dun Pawl’s vision was that of building a new bigger oratory.

With the election of Mgr Joseph Pace as the new Bishop of Gozo, Dun Pawl succeeded to build a new oratory on the site where an old cemetery, next to St Augustine’s convent, once stood. This cemetery had a number of tombstones above the remains of what it is believed were medieval Crusaders who fell victim of an epidemic of dysentery in nearby Tunisia in 1270 en route to the Holy Land and were transferred to Gozo. Before the construction of the oratory began, the remains were transferred to another cemetery known as Tal-Għonq in front of the church of St Marta in Victoria.

The plan of the new oratory was drawn up by architect Luigi Portelli from Għarb and the first stone was blessed on December 12, 1946. Though Dun Pawl had little money for the project, he managed to build the oratory in a relatively short time. He succeeded in continuing the project through voluntary work and financial support from many individuals. The Bishop of Gozo was very helpful and opened the Curia coffers to support the initiative, while Maltese lawyer Joseph Pace gave most of the proceeds from his professional work in Gozo towards the building.

Dun Pawl was a Jack of all trades and master of everything. He was sought after as a confessor as well as a preacher, but he also lent a hand as a carpenter, tailor and whitewasher. His cassock was always soiled with dust and cement. The cement stains on his clerical vest­ment were seen by many as the most glorious medals that could be pinned to the chest of a courageous priest. Dun Pawl suffered hardship and food shortage, and like Don Bosco, the saint who inspired and guided him, he lived a life of poverty to give others all that was his.

The oratory was inaugurated by Bishop Joseph Pace on October 8, 1949. Dun Pawl continued with his educational activity, which now increased, without neglecting his other duties as major sacristan at St George’s church. Indeed, this bond with St George’s had served him well since, through it, he had a good rapport with all the people of Victoria. He could thus nurture his contacts with those who could become, and did become, the Oratory’s benefactors in money or kind.

Dun Pawl’s funeral cortège entering the Gozo Cathedral.

The Oratory provided a fertile ground for many religious vocations, especially when the Salesians, according to Dun Pawl’s wishes, were invited to the Gozo diocese by Bishop Pace and given permission to use the building as their home in Gozo. Fr Luigi Mizzi SDB, who hailed from Għarb, being the first Gozitan member of the Salesian Congregation, was chosen to be the oratory’s first director on January 31, 1947, the liturgical feast of St John Bosco. Two years later, in 1949, Fr Joseph Mangion, SDB, and Fr Joseph Borg, SDB, were assigned to Gozo to assist Fr Mizzi.

Dun Pawl and Fr Mizzi got to know each other in their school years. Besides being a great admirer of Don Bosco, Fr Mizzi and Dun Pawl were also united by their long-standing awareness that something had to be done for young people in Gozo.

Though it is said that Dun Pawl’s health was never very good, it was in 1952 that he began to visibly decline. November 14, 1956, marked his last visit to the Oratory. Suffering from an incurable illness which consumed him, he died at his family dwelling at no. 40, Archbishop Peter Pace Street, Victoria, poor but honoured, at the break of dawn on Saturday, November 24, 1956, aged 59.

The lone tolling of bells for his death was relentless in its call for prayer and many were the faithful who gathered in the parish church to pray for the holy priest whom they had lost, a generous benefactor who was departing, a true friend that they were being asked to give up. Indeed, with his demise 60 years ago, young Gozitans were bereaved of a father, the city of Victoria was deprived of a saintly priest, and the Don Bosco Oratory lost its founder and benefactor.

Dun Pawl was a Jack of all trades and master of everything

I presume that in those sad circumstances, Dun Pawl may have wished to turn towards those grieving his parting and address them with the words of St Maximilan Kolbe: “On earth, we can only work with one hand, since with the other we have to hold fast to the hand railing, in order not to fall. But in heaven it will be different. No danger of slipping or falling, and we will work far more, using both hands!”

People from near and far flocked for the funeral rites. Conspicuous among them were the young men and children ‘of the Oratorju’.

In the evening of November 24, the mortal remains of Dun Pawl were given a final farewell at the Gozo Cathedral. Dun Pawl’s body, arrayed in clerical vestments and placed in a coffin, was carried shoulder-high by youths. Four monsignors acted as pall-bearers during the funeral cortège from his residence to the Cathedral. He was later interred in the central grave at St Barbara Chapel, beneath the Cathedral.

In 1989, Dun Pawl’s remains were exhumed and transferred to the Chapel of the Holy Relics, on the left-hand side of the Cathedral. Several people close to the Oratory made heartfelt pleas for Dun Pawl to be reinterred in the Oratory itself, as his rightful home. Others argued, however, that it was only fitting that a religious person as holy and eminent as Dun Pawl, who had contributed so much to Gozo and its young people, should find his final resting place in the Cathedral, where the island’s bishops and monsignors are buried. This proves the high esteem with which Dun Pawl was and is still held, even after his death.

On December 3, 2003, Don Pasqual Chavez Villanueva, rector major of the Salesian Congregation and ninth successor of Don Bosco, visited the Gozo Cathedral and laid a bouquet of flowers on Dun Pawl’s grave. He is seen here accompanied by Mgr Joseph Gauci and Fr Charles Cini, SDB.

The Salesians, in the person of Fr Vincent Debono, SDB, left the Oratory in December 19, 1965. Fr Debono is credited at the Oratory with being the one who, encouaged by many people who had frequented the place, commissioned Italian sculptor Carlo Pisi (1897-1979) to design and set up a monument in honour of Dun Pawl. The large bronze low-relief monument featuring Dun Pawl’s portrait and his ministry with Oratory youths, was manufactured at Pietrasanta, Lucca.

Since then, it has almost become a custom for the Bishop of Gozo to choose diocesan priests to take the responsibility of the Oratory as directors. In fact, Fr Effie Masini, the present director, is the latest in a list which included Mgr Carmel Scicluna, Mgr Emanuel Curmi, Fr George Borg, Mgr Anton Borg, Fr Joseph C. Mercieca and Fr Louis Bezzina. In addition, three Salesian vocations – Fr Carmel Sacco, Fr Charles Cini and Fr Fabio Attard – blossomed thanks to their contact with the several Salesians who gave their services at the Oratory.

The Oratorio Don Bosco today caters for the spiritual and holistic formation of many children and young peo­ple. Through the Salesian charisma, which is still alive as in the years of Don Bosco, and the Salesians’ presence in Gozo, together with the many opportunities it offers. These include sport, drama and a cinema during the weekend, showing films appropriate for all the family, among other activities. In this way the Oratory continues to be a loving cradle of Christian formation, as it has always been since its foundation by Dun Pawl.

In 2005, St George’s parish commissioned a portrait of this devout priest, which now hangs in the sacristy. The portrait, painted by renowned Maltese artist Raymond Pitrè, was bequeathed to the basilica by Mgr Felix Tabone, the parish vicar and great-nephew of Dun Pawl.

Furthermore, on November 24, 2006, a marble plaque commemorating Dun Pawl on the 50th anniversary of his death was set up in the major sacristy of St George’s basilica. It was unveiled by Mgr Tabone and blessed by Gozo Bishop Mgr Nicholas Cauchi.

If Turin exults in and feels blessed by Don Bosco and the great oeuvre of the Salesians, so also Victoria rejoices in and feels proud that one of her sons, Dun Pawl Micallef, was chosen by God to give birth to one of the most wholesome fruits of the saint of Turin: the Oratory legacy.

Acknowledgement
My thanks go to Mgr Felix Tabone and John Cremona for their invaluable help and support.