Ġużeppi Diacono. Sacerdos Dux Peritus Fundator

by various authors

published by the Ministry for Gozo/Xagħra Local Council, 2024

A team of researchers from Gozo have come together to study the life and legacy of the late Fr Ġużeppi Diacono, parish-priest of Xagħra, renowned designer, leader as well as founding father, beloved by his parishioners and admired by his fellow countrymen. 

The volume that the Xagħra local council has produced about him commemorates the first centenary from his death in 1924.

Diacono was born in a family of 14 siblings from parents who hailed from Żabbar. Born in 1847, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1871. He lived in interesting times; Gozo had just been established as a separate diocese from Malta in September 1864. 

The diocesan seminary run by the Jesuits was at its very beginning. A decade or so after his birth, the first band clubs began to appear on the island.

Every parish was doing its best to have its own titular statue. Pope Pius IX occupied the See of Peter and he was to serve the Church for 30 years, the longest pontificate in the history of the Church. Diacono, after having served the Church in town, worked also in other parishes such as Għasri and Qala. However, it was in Xagħra that Diacono was to settle and leave his imprint in various ways. 

On the initiative of Aaron Attard Hili, who has been researching the history of his native Xagħra for decades, a small number of experts in their own field have come together to provide us with a monograph that can be considered the most authoritative work on Diacono. 

This new volume throws new light on an important household name about whom the public knew next to nothing

Rev. Mgr Dr Joseph Bezzina provides us with a biographical sketch and, thanks to him, the reader becomes familiar with this important figure in the history of the local Church. 

Attard Hili himself writes at length about the years Diacono spent as parish priest of Xagħra; it was during his tenure that the parish priest of the village was honoured with the title of ‘archpriest’.  He also did his best to see the founding of the collegiate within his parish church. 

Diacono designed the new dome that dominates Xagħra and the whereabouts. Consiglia Azzopardi, an expert on lace and the development of the craft on Gozo, writes about Diacono’s contribution to the promotion of the lace industry on the island, an industry that truly made a difference in the life of the working classes in a time and age when poverty was the common trait of social life. 

Portrait of Fr Ġużeppi Diacono by Pawlu Camilleri-Cauchi, 2016, found in the sacristy of the Xagħra parish church. Photo via Xagħra parish Facebook page

Charles E. Cassar’s contribution focuses on Diacono’s talent for architectural design.  A good read of Cassar’s article will provide the reader with a different perception of various of Gozo’s churches since many ecclesiastical buildings on the island are identified with him.

This new volume about Diacono is a timely contribution to the history of Gozo since it throws new light on an important household name about whom the public knew next to nothing; it a book to be cherished by amateurs and professionals alike.