The offspring of Girolamo Cassar’s turbulent love life may not have yet received the attention they deserve. 

Girolamo is known to have fathered children in and out of wedlock but their life trajectory has been obscured by the dazzling light that shines out of the ancestor. Today, I propose to flesh out the profile of one of Girolamo’s lesser-known children, Gabriele, about whom almost nothing was known so far.

A possibly autographed petition by Fra Gabriele Cassar to Grand Master Jean Paul Lascaris. Photo: Courtesy of the National Library, Malta

Girolamo Cassar (1530?-1592) represents the foremost, most prolific and gifted Maltese architect and military engineer in the pre-baroque era. He planned and designed virtually all the important public buildings in the new city of Valletta and outside  and seems to have attracted the respect, admiration and gratitude of all the grand masters he worked for.

Girolamo married the bella e disposta (beautiful and ‘accessible’) Matthia (Mattea), born to an impoverished branch of the noble Cassia family. Both husband and wife had disturbing emotional antecedents better kept well hidden. 

A fictional 19th-century portrait of Girolamo Cassar

Before she became the mistress of Girolamo and had children by him, the pretty girl Matthia, barely 12 years old, had married a soldier but he was lost at sea (captured or killed) off Gozo about a month later during the disastrous expedition of 1570 when the corsair Lucciali trounced the Order’s galleys. 

Aged 16, Matthia had then been pimped for two years to the married judge Valerio Micallef, by the renowned Żebbuġ high-class procurer Nardu Mamo, who catered professionally to the lust of prominent knights and civilians, foreigners and Maltese alike, as he detested racism.

Micallef, assessor of the grand master, consultant of the inquisition and judge of the bishop’s court, used to pay Matthia the teen publicly and shamefully for her love services. 

Matthia eventually graduated into Girolamo’s concubine. They had to wait long to get married, not before positive proof of her husband’s death could be established, but they eventually did.

Girolamo, on his part, had already been dubiously ‘married’ to Isabella de Torres, a union which he tried, and later found quite difficult, to disown. He only managed this by almost certainly perjuring himself they had never physically consummated the marriage. 

Besides the five children he had, before and during marriage, from Matthia, Girolamo also fathered Gio Domenico out of wedlock, a son who he first acknowledged but disinherited in 1589 as “consistently disobedient and rebellious”. Gio Domenico entered the priesthood, then defrocked himself and got married.

The exact date of Gabriele’s birth has not yet been established but must range between 1580 and 1583. More likely the earlier as, by 1596, he had already enrolled as a member of the Order and styled himself Frater in official documents.

Almost nothing is known about his early years but, in 1596, the youth Gabriele found himself involved in proceedings initiated by the inquisition against his mother, Matthia and his elder sister, Marietta, both under house arrest accused of witchcraft. 

"Gabriele came from a quarrelsome and cantankerous family"

At one point, they petitioned the inquisitor to be released “as they were alone and had no one to take care of them having been abandoned by everyone”. Gabriele organised their deliverance when Inquisitor Innocenzo del Bufalo acceded to their request.

Gabriele came from a quarrelsome and cantankerous family, repeatedly involved in violence, brawls and vendettas. His elder brother, Vittorio had landed on the wrong side of the law several times, including the grievous wounding of his uncle, Brandano; his sister Marietta’s second husband ended assassinated. 

In 1599, Gabriele reported to the Castellania − the police authorities − that he had been waylaid and attacked by a barber, Pasquale Scerri, armed with a sword, and by Francesco Pace wielding a dagger (insultu cum arrancamento, see Maltese irranka) as he entered the Porta Reale and was heading home. 

A number of passers-by saved Gabriele and prized the aggressors away from him. He wanted Matteo Rodriguez and others he mentioned by name to be called as witnesses.

Gio Francesco Abela, the first Maltese historian, refers to Fra Gabriele fleetingly, recording that he became Commendatore of Roccabruna (near Cuneo, Piedmont) and was admitted in the Order in the Priory of Castile. The two legitimate sons of Girolamo Cassar, the more renowned Vittorio and Gabriele, both joined the Order in the lesser ranks of servants (sometimes sergeants) –at-arms, which required good, but not noble, birth and who anyway professed the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 

Fra Gabriele also features in the criminal records of the Order in 1601. Two knights, Fra Jean Baptiste Soffalen, dit La Vachiera, and Fra Nicole Chales were expelled from the Order for having wounded Fra Gabriele. The council later commuted this severe penalty into a term of imprisonment and loss of seniority.

But, three years later, Fra Gabriele found himself in the dock, together with Fra Jean de Villamur, for having slapped a seaman across the face. That was to be an inauspicious year for Gabriele and his elder brother,  Fra Vittorio as, shortly later, the council condemned them both for violent armed assault against some civilians, though,  thankfully, without bloodshed. Their exuberance earned them the quarantena, a period of 40 days’ confinement and fasting, only interrupted by intervals of prayer.

Gabriele may have followed his father’s footsteps in fathering children out of wedlock. As a member of a religious order who had sworn the solemn vow of chastity, marriage was out of reach but lechery was not. 

Documents prove that an Andrea, described as the son of Gabriele Cassar, married Barbara Gatt, daughter of Aloisio (Luigi) and Maruzza Cumbo as per records of notary Michele Vella of November 18, 1662. This entry is repeated in the marriage registries of the parish of Porto Salvo, Valletta, on December 10, 1662, with the bride’s name here given as Barbarica.

A manuscript housed in the National Library has some useful information about prominent Maltese, including Girolamo Cassar and his two legitimate sons who joined the Order. Regarding Fra Gabriele, it states: “he turned out valorous in the use of weapons and expert in military exercises, especially in dealing with horses with the utmost skill, and later died as Commendatore of the Venerable Langue of Provence.”

Another manuscript source about persons in Holy Orders showers more praise on Gabriele: Fra Gabriello Cassar of the Hospitaller Order, Commendatore of Roccabruna. Through the powerful depth of his ingenuity, he reached admirable heights. 

For matters of importance to the Order, he proceeded to Vienna on an embassy, as honorific as it was important. On his return to Malta, the grand master embraced Cassar and made him prior of an expedition in which, during the climax of the battle, burthened by the fatigue of the rank of colonel, he died.

This note, if reliable, raises several queries. It is the first suggestion that Gabriele may have died in the wake of some armed conflict. The year 1640 records several military movements by the Order. But Cassar is never before found mentioned in the live fighting annals of the Hospitallers.

Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, during whose rule the Turkish 1614 razzia of Żejtun occurred.

The Cassars had some sort of rather close relationship with Żejtun. We know from an undated (but c. 1640) petition by Gabriele Cassar to Grand Master Jean Paul Lascaris that he had been one of the victims of the ferocious 1614 Ottoman razzia. A marauding armada of 60 galleys under Khalil Pasha landed some 6,000 armed men in St Thomas Bay, Marsascala on July 6 and laid waste to Żejtun and the countryside around it. The large stash of human bones found in a hidden recess in the old Żejtun church of St Gregory was for years believed to have been linked to this last major pillage by the Ottomans but this legend has since been challenged.

The hidden stack of human bones discovered in an inaccessible recess of St Gregory church, Żejtun, long believed to be connected to the 1614 razzia. Photo: Courtesy of Ruben Abela

In his words, Gabriele stated that, as standard bearer of Casal Pasqualino (Żejtun), “when the 60 Turkish galleys landed in this island of Malta, for having been unable to protect his farms, he had all the crops in his fields burnt and all his animals slaughtered, in such a manner that the poor petitioner remained ruined and was obliged to sell a major part of his lands…”

John Grima, monument to Francesco Laparelli and Girolamo Cassar, Valletta. Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Cilia

Following the example of his father, Girolamo, who had for long been the procurator of the church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Żejtun − then known as Sancta Maria Succursus − and had promoted its annual festa, Fra Gabriele took over in 1618. The altar was about to be dismantled, possibly through disrepair, and Gabriele stepped in and saved the day, committing himself henceforth to look after its needs.

Detail from the Martyrdom of St Catherine, Żejtun. It shows the three plumes of fire and smoke started by the Ottomans around Żejtun in 1614 and the Turkish fleet painted red. Photo: Courtesy of Ruben Abela

The statue of the Immaculate Conception today gracing the altar of the crypt of the parish church of Żejtun was originally gifted and placed by Fra Gabriele in the older church of St Mary of ir-Rahal ta’ Fuq.

When his widowed mother,  Matthia came to draw up her last will in 1615, she did not include Gabriele among her universal heirs, probably because,  as a knight servant-at-arms, he would forfeit the inherited estate in favour of the Order. To avoid this, Matthia left Fra Gabriele the usufruct, use and habitation of her matrimonial house (in today’s St Ursula Street corner with Melita Street), her black slave, Antonia, aged about 24 years, tutta la biancheria (linen) and various items of clothing she had inherited from her late husband, Girolamo.

The very last document I have found relating to Fra Gabriele is a petition he addressed to Grand Master Lascaris. He wrote it in passable Italian and the copy preserved at the National Library could possibly be in his own – terrible − handwriting.

A seicento alfiere, a standard bearer of the 17th century

He starts by explaining that he had occupied the position of standard-bearer (alfiero) of the parish of Żejtun for the past 56 years, that is, since c.1584. This is blatantly incorrect as Gabriele cannot have been born earlier than 1580. During this long period of office, he had gone through six banners, which he paid for out of his own pocket, and this set him back 300 scudi.

An inscription to commemorate the Żejtun razzia of 1614, in which Fra Gabriele Cassar suffered considerable losses. Photo: Courtesy of Ruben Abela

Gabriele then laments the catastrophic damages he had suffered during the 1614 Turkish razzia (see above). He was now only left with a few fields close to the sea, all open to attacks by corsairs, the more so as these could land there to replenish their ships with water. The petitioner now being old (decrepito) needed to build a massaria (a fortified farmhouse) in the locality called spacio tal-Lippija (San Tumas taż-Żonqor between Żejtun and Marsascala) where there was plenty of open land. This would make the population happy, as the grand master could find out on enquiring. He, therefore, requested the grant of land to be able to surround it with walls. 

St Thomas Tower, Marsascala, built just after the Turkish razzia of 1614.

The grand master consulted the bali siniscalco of the Order and the constables of Żejtun, Gio Maria Bonnici and Domenico Farrugia, who democratically mustered the villagers to sound their views on this grant to Gabriele. They all reported favourably in writing in 1642  and the grand master granted Gabriele his request, though by now he had already been dead two years. Cassar’s petition refers to a deed by a notary, which, sadly, does not seem to have survived.

After his death in 1640, two creditors filed small claims against Gabriele’s estate for monies claimed by them. Domenico Bezzina from Naxxar swore he was due two scudi compensation for services he had rendered the deceased before his death. The duties of Bezzina, Gabriele’s servant for five years, included harvesting the barley grown on his master’s lands. He estimated 130 loads of 12 bundles each, which Bezzina referred to by their Maltese designation, lichef, not recorded by Aquilina. He claimed to be poverissimo (very poor) and that he would not survive until he found a new job unless he got paid.

Simone Buttigieg put in a second claim which sheds interesting light. He refers to Gabriele’s vineyards and fields in San Tumas, the barley crop of which he had cared for and ground, in all 30 salme and seven tumina. To do that, he had to make use of seven oxen for three days. He believed he was due six tari, though he had not agreed on a wage with Gabriele beforehand. Friends, don’t do that, do they? The award was for five scudi and Marcello Matrenza, soon to qualify as a notary, witnessed the proceedings. 

Fra Gabriele’s estate was singled out for remembrance as it must have seemed rather conspicuous. Fra Fabrizio Cagliola (1604-1665), the author of that curious literary pastiche of fact and fiction Disavventure marinaresche, c. 1650, recorded that, on Gabriele’s death, the Order inherited 3,000 scudi from the knight.

"After his death in 1640, two creditors filed small claims against Gabriele’s estate"

In the summer of 1991, an unusual portrait in oils of a knight of Malta, dated 1633 and said to be Fra Gabriele Cassar, came up for sale on the local art market. It is the image of a balding knight of the Order of St John, with Mediterranean facial features wearing expensive fineries and weighted by tons of gold chains. The sitter looks quite corpulent, suggesting that the effects of 40 days’ fasting had by then worn off. 

"He may have followed his father’s footsteps, fathering children out of wedlock"

The painting, by an unidentified but competent artist in the Cara­vaggio tradition, on the top left-hand corner displays a heraldic coat of arms of a Commendatore of the Order of Malta – a white cross on a red chief, reserved for balis and commendatori, over a paschal lamb holding a banner with another white cross on a red field, adopted as the emblem of the Order of Malta. The lamb crouches on a coastal tower, identical to the ones designed by Gabriele’s brother, the military engineer Fra Vittorio Cassar. 

In fact, Vittorio placed a similar Cassar coat of arms on his tombstone in the little church of St Barbara in the Citadel of Gozo, erected in 1607. Fra Gabriele was the only Cassar commendatore of Malta in 1633 and this confirms the identity of the sitter. The present whereabouts of the portrait could not be traced.

One of the coats of arms of the noble Cassia family. Fra Gabriele was the son of Matthia Cassia, from an impoverished branch of the family.

Acknowledgements

Joan Abela, Ruben Abela, Richard Cachia Caruana, Maroma Camilleri, Fra John Critien, Jeremy Debono, Edward Degaetano, Marquis Nicholas DePiro, Anthony Mifsud and Joseph Mizzi. Stanley Fiorini has been particularly generous with his time and skills.