Giuseppe Farrugia was born on June 2, 1852, to Paul and Maria née Borg in an alley in Strada Pietà, Rabat [today Victoria], Gozo. He was baptised in the parish church of St George by Rabat archpriest Mgr Michaele Francesco Buttigieg, who in 1864 became the first bishop of the newly erected diocese of Gozo. He was given the names Georgius, Josef and Johannes.

The eldest and only son of a family of seven, he was then confirmed at the Gozo matrice by Mgr Giuseppe Maria Bravi, Bishop of Ceylon, on October 30, 1856, when he was just four years old ‒ something very common in those days.

The collegiate basilica of St George in the heart of Victoria  today boasts of Mgr Farrugia’s designs, decorations and musical treasures.

Giuseppe started his studies at the Victoria Government Primary School and, from a very young age, showed extraordinary talents. When Pope Pius IX established Gozo as a separate diocese, he was chosen to read the address in honour of the new bishop Mgr Michaele Francesco Buttigieg, in the main square in Victoria, today’s Independence Square, on October 23, 1864. It is recorded that the throng of Gozitans that packed the square received this address with such enthusiasm that it had to be encored.

On September 11, 1866, the Jesuits arrived in Gozo from Sicily, with the specific purpose to assume responsibility for the formation of seminarians at the diocesan seminary, officially opened on November 4, 1866, by Bishop Fra Paulo Micallef O.E.S.A., then administrator for Gozo. Giuseppe was one of the first candidates for the priesthood to be accepted at the Gozo Seminary in November 1866.

He was an enlightened personality

During this time, besides the formal academic subjects, Farrugia studied music under the distinguished Fr Scio. Br Filippo Cosimo taught him design, while Fr Filippo Borelli trained him in architecture. The Seminary Rector Fr Gaetano Franchina, who was well aware of his student’s capability and intelligence, immediately began to teach him the Latin language and Italian literature.

Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia (1852-1925). A portrait photo donated to Mgr Farrugia, as a token of gratitude, by the seminarians on April 25, 1915, and which he bequeathed to the La Stella Philharmonic Society. Photo: La Stella Philharmonic Society, Victoria.

A note in the Registro dei Nomi, Cognomi, Direzione, Nascita, Ingresso in Seminario 1866-1870, i.e. the years in which Farrugia was a student, attests to his intellectual abilities and achievements, which are summed up in the simple telling phrase “Ottimo in tutto e sempre il primo” (the best in everything and always the first).

Farrugia was ordained priest on May 22, 1875, by Mgr Antonio Grech Delicata, the second Bishop of Gozo, at the Gozo Cathedral. He then celebrated his first solemn mass at the parish church of St George in Victoria, where he was to begin his ministry and pastoral activity.

But within two years, Mgr Pietro Pace, Bishop of Gozo, conscious of his intellectual abilities, nominated him his secretary. Thus, Farrugia became secretary to Bishop Pace and was also assigned as examiner for the clergy and teacher of the Latin language at the Seminary.

In 1884, Farrugia succeeded Canon Michelangelo Garroni as librarian of the Public Library at Vajringa Street, Victoria. He held this post for 31 years.

On September, 4, 1885, Farrugia was made canon of the Cathedral Chapter, where he gave his service as theologian for almost 14 years. On March 28, 1899, he was appointed dean of the same Cathedral Chapter.

The Holy See rewarded his services on two occasions, nominating him Prelato Domestico of the pope on September 24, 1894, and 12 years later, on January 20, 1906, decorated him with the title of Protonotario Apostolico.

Known and respected as an exemplary priest, an erudite scholar, a gifted orator and a man of outstanding musical artistic talents, Farrugia had an important role in the formulation of the first Diocesan Synod, the conclusions of which were published in 1903. In 1907, Mgr Giovanni Maria Camilleri, O.E.S.A., Bishop of Gozo, chose him as vicar general of the diocese.

Besides teaching Latin at the government secondary school in Victoria for over 45 years, Farrugia also taught English language and literature. He held the chairs of dogmatic theology, morals and Sacred Scripture at the Gozo Seminary, where he also served as rector of the seminary between January and August 1910.

In 1914, he was again chosen as rector for the seminary and served in this office until 1917. During his rectorship, he upgraded the prize-giving ceremony and made it an event to be eagerly awaited for.

Farrugia was very much sought after as a preacher. Panegyrics and funeral orations flowed to him and he masterly delivered many in Maltese or in Italian, the latter being a language he was very fluent in.

The literary, artistic and musical output of Farrugia have turned out to be of an inestimable value to the Maltese identity; a man whose personality contributed to culture, for he was, both in essence and in substance, an enlightened personality. Indeed, besides being an intellectual and a man of letters, Tal-Vers, as he was locally known, was also a renowned architect and composer.

As a designer of extraordinary capability, Farrugia designed the Cathedral Chapter Hall, which was built during the episcopate of Mgr Pietro Pace. He also designed the façade of the Public Library at Vajringa Street, Victoria, and the apse behind the main altar at St George’s parish church.

The original design prepared by Mgr Farrugia for the façade of the Public Library at Vajringa Street, Victoria, Gozo. Photo: National Archives of Malta, Gozo

Archpriest Mgr Felice Refalo appointed Farrugia to design plans for the enlargement of the southern transept at St George’s parish church. He was also in charge of the building of the new Chapter Hall at the said parish church and – among many others – he prepared the design for the gold-embroidered red velvet liturgical copes used during the celebrations of the solemnity of St George there.

Farrugia designed the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as Ta’ Savina, Victoria, inspired by the Ionic style. He also tuned the bells of the parish churches of Qala, Mellieħa and St George of Victoria.

The church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (Ta’ Savina), Victoria, Gozo, was built following designs by Mgr. Giuseppe Farrugia. The first stone was laid on June 21, 1901.

As a very good musician, his works are considered to be ahead of what was being composed contemporaneously in Malta, especially in the aspects of conception and treatment. Among his musical compositions, one comes across motets, masses, hymns (both sacred and secular), antiphons, litanies, vespers and responsorial psalms.

The archives of the La Stella Band of Victoria conserve his oratorio entitled Mosè and the sinfonia La Patria. The melodious antiphon Hodie egressa est (1884), sung on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the church of St Francis, Victoria, also originated from his pen.

Nonetheless, Mgr Farrugia is best known for the music he composed for the feast of St George, still played in St George’s basilica every July. Among his major compositions, one finds his triduum hymn Georgi Miles Inclite (1878), the antiphon Beatus Georgius (1897) and the Vespri per la Solennità di San Giorgio Martire (1900). Other notable works include the Tantum Ergo in onore di San Giorgio Martire (1901).

As a poet, he wrote the lyrics for two splendid hymns for which he also composed the music, namely, Spento è il Drago and Su Garzoni All’lnvito Campione. The latter was written for the solemn entry into Victoria of the statue of St George on the Dragon, moulded by the prominent Maltese statuary Vincenzo M. Cremona in 1894. Farrugia also wrote a hymn to commemorate the instalment of Mgr Michael Gonzi as Bishop of Gozo, which took place on August 10, 1924.

The frontispiece of the hymn Su Garzoni All’lnvito Campione for which Mgr Farrugia wrote the lyrics and composed the music in 1894. Photo: Archives La Stella Philharmonic Society, Victoria, Gozo

The frontispiece of Tantum Ergo, composed by Mgr Farrugia in 1901, in honour of St George, the glorious martyr. Photo: Archives Mgr. Joseph and George Farrugia

A historian and apologist, in 1891, Farrugia put in print the great happening that occurred to the simple peasant Carmela Grima, that of being spoken to by the Virgin Mary. The booklet La Beata Vergine Ta’ Pinu was for many years the only narrative of that great event.

However, his greatest publication is the book San Paolo Apostolo e Padre dei Gozitani (1915), in which he defended his thesis that St Paul converted also the people of Gozo in the year AD 60 when he was in Malta for three months. He was prompted to write this book by Mgr Pietro Pace, the Archbishop of Malta, himself a Gozitan. Mgr Angelo Portelli OP, the Auxiliary Bishop of Malta and a contemporary of the author, after reading the book, said: “It never passed my mind that Mgr Farrugia is a man of such great erudition.”

In 2002, professor Maria Frendo, in a write-up about Mgr Farrugia, said: “One finds it hard to think that Gozo has, before or since, produced a person of the outstanding calibre of Mgr Farrugia. Few, perhaps, shall ever take the pains, as it were, to study the consummate art of his style, the fine philosophical depth in his language, the gift of rhetoric in his sermons, the controlled abundance of his music, the complex simplicity of his designs in which intellect and passionate feeling preserve a classic balance.”

In 1915, Farrugia retired from his post as librarian and two years later terminated his teaching career and resigned his rectorship from the seminary. In 1918, he relinquished his post as vicar general. He died on March 18, 1925 – 100 years ago. His death deprived Gozo of its most illustrious prelate of the time. Definitely, “un vero ornamento del clero delle due isole” (a true adornment of the clergy of the two islands), as Mgr Paolo Cauchi wrote after his death.

Tombstone that covers Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia’s burial place at the Gozo Cathedral.

Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia’s memorial card distributed after his death in 1925.

Marble plaque that commemorates Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia in St George’s Square, Victoria, Gozo, inaugurated on July 15, 1991. Photo: J. J. P. Zammit

In order to be remembered by future generations, on July 15, 1991, the Historical Cultural Committee of St George’s Basilica took the initiative of inaugurating a marble plaque with a bust in his honour ‒ the work of artist Alfred Camilleri Cauchi ‒ in St George’s Square, Victoria. May his name always be remembered with reverence and admiration among his fellow Gozitan populace.