Superior General of the MSSP

Joseph was born in Floriana. He joined the Missionary Society of Saint Paul and was named Stanley. Started his novitiate on 8 October 1944 and was ordained priest on 22 December 1951. Soon given the responsibility of the formation of novices and students of the Society, for several years he was the right hand of the Superior General of the Society, Rev Michael Callus, the first MSSP to be nominated superior of the Society.

St Paul’s Missionary College received its first intake in October 1964, in what was then the library of the Motherhouse that the Missionary Society of St Paul has in Rabat. It was the brainchild of Fr Stanley Tomlin, who realised that a secondary school can well be the “greenhouse of the Missionary Society of St Paul”. This vision has been proved true since quite a number of college old boys served as MSSP members both in Malta and in the missions, while a number of others become diocesan priests or joined other religious congregations.

Elected Superior General of the Missionary Society of St Paul in 1970, an office he held for 12 years. A learned and dedicated priest of great vision, during this period he worked extremely hard to promote vocations within the Society and contributed immensely to help spread the missionary work of the Society abroad. In fact, he gave the go-ahead for the establishment of the Maltese community centre on the premises of the Missionary Society of St Paul at Parkville, Victoria, Australia, which is the hub of Maltese community welfare and social activities in the state of Victoria, Australia.

In 1973, he was instrumental in obtaining the Decretum Laudis, whereby the MSSP became a Pontifical Institution. When, in 1982, his term as Superior General came to an end he was appointed director of St. Joseph’s Home, Santa Venera, an office he kept until 1988 when, for the second time, he was appointed master of novices and superior of Stella Maris Home in Żebbuġ, Gozo.

Eventually in 2001 he was appointed superior of St. Agatha’s Motherhouse in Rabat, an office he occupied until the year 2008.

Father Tomlin passed away at the named Motherhouse and was laid to rest in the Motherhouse crypt near the remains of Monsignor Giuseppe De Piro, founder of the Missionary Society of St. Paul.

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