Priest of Saintly Fame

The son of Pietro Decelis and Giovanna née Lanfranco, Carmelo was ordained priest on 22 January 1832.

According to L’Ordine ‘Decelis worked assiduously in the vineyard of the Lord with zeal, exercising his priestly mission from dawn to dark in the parish church of St Paul’s Shipwrecked, Valletta, and also in the small church of St Lucy of which he was a rector’.

Decelis died during the cholera epidemic at his residence in Melita Street, Valletta.

Some years after his death, a woman told the curate of St Paul’s Shipwrecked church, Valletta, that a priest had appeared to her in a dream and asked her to go and see the curate and tell him that his grave in Pietà cemetery had been abandoned and nobody remembered him any longer. From a photo, she recognised the priest who had appeared to her and that he was Decelis. The story soon spread around and, since that date, Decelis’ grave at Pietà became the venue of prayers and offerings.

On 15 September 1955, the grand-nephews of the Rev. Carmelo Decelis, including Lieutenant Colonel Curmi of Canada, Captain H.Curmi of Australia, Victor Curmi of the Education Department, Mother Alice, and Mother Hilda Curmi of the Sacred Heart Convent, in the presence of Mgr Giuseppe Mifsud, Chancellor of the Bishop’s Curia, members of the Chapter of St Paul’s Shipwreck and other priests gathered at the grave’s side when the remains were exhumed, placed in a new coffin to ensure their better preservation, and re-interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Shipwreak Collegiate church.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.