Ecclesiastic and Patriot
Born in Valletta, the second son of Giuseppe and Giovanna née Schembri Pace, Gaetano was baptised that same day at the parish church of St Paul’s Shipwreck, Valletta. His father was a wealthy merchant from Valletta, and Gaetano followed his eldest brother’s footsteps Rev Paolo, and entered the priesthood, enjoying reputation of good conduct and charity.
Mannarino’s life as a priest was exemplary at a time when the clergy of the towns had become infected with the spirit of moral laxity induced by the example of the knights. Mannarino went to Rome, and was sent by the Jesuits on missions in the environs of the city. He returned to Malta with the reputation as a preacher and obsessed by the idea to be a missionary in his native Island. He was granted permission to preach in the church of St Paul’s Shipwreck in Valletta by the Capitular Vicar Grixti, against the desire of the Archpriest Grima, on condition that he was careful about what he preached. His sermons were described by a contemporary as ‘uncouth and unworldy’, and ‘as a confessor he was esteemed a good priest but hard headed and obstinate even over little manners, some of his opinions being most strange’.
In December 1772, at the same time as the aged Grandmaster Pinto was lying on his death bed, Mannarino was seized by a severe illness. He attributed his recovery to a miraculous intercession and on the last day of the year, he announced that he would fulfill that same evening a vow he had made for his recovery. He collected all the numerous mendicants of the city, led the+m in a thanks giving procession to St Publius Church, Floriana, where after a short sermon he distributed bread and soup to all who had followed him. Soon Floriana was crowded with people from all over the island and this crowd assumed such proportions that the Council of the Order was seriously alarmed and an order was issued to close the gates of the city and to mount the guard.
The recall of Rome of Bishop Pellarano and his forced departure from Malta to Rome on 5 April 1775, for having dared to champion the rights of the clergy and people of Malta against the oppressive decrees of Grandmaster Ximenes caused great exitement on the Island. Dun Mannarino was then about fifty years old. He was strong and sturdy, and above all, brave. He was often vociferous against inefficient rule of the Knights which brought so much discontentment to both the people and the clergy. His involvement with the rowdy knight Galan increased his determination to speak aloud and when all legitimate efforts to find redress failed, he set plans to vindicate his rights and those of all Maltese through aggressive means by force of arms.
His plan was to take the knights by surprise, cause a popular rising in the country villages and persuade the unhappy members of the nobility to take the lead. This was the only way to make the Grandmaster abandon his repressive economic policies and to discipline the rowdy young members of the Order who had no respect for the rights and privileges of the Maltese.
On 8 September 1775, feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the commemoration of the Maltese victory over the Turks in the Great Siege of 1565, Dun Mannarino was ready with his men at St John’s Conventual Church where Grandmaster Ximenes was conducting the solemn celebrations. At dusk Mannarino gave his signal for the assault. The rebels attacked in two groups. One, led by Dun Mannarino, headed towards St Elmo while the other proceeded to St James. The lightning attack surprised the guards at both forts. At St Elmo, Major Guron together with two knights and ten soldiers were arrested and closed in the dungeons while at St James the Maltese took possession of the bastions almost unnoticed.
By two o’clock on the morrow of 9 September, the two forts were in hands of the rebels. Dun Gaetano hoisted a huge flag bearing the old Maltese colours on St Elmo, and at dawn he fired a cannon shot. In accordance with a set plan the men at St James answered with another shot to show that they were also in complete possession of the fort. The shots alerted the city and the neighbouring countryside.
Sympathisers of the Order gathered in front of the Magisterial Palace to rally support for the Grandmaster. Ximenes was of the opinion that peaceful negotiations with the insurgents would serve a better purpose and evade bloodshed. The Grandmaster invited the Vicar General to intervene. The Maltese accepted his mediation and asked for some time in which to study the Grandmaster’s proposals. In the meantime, the Order’s Council decided to attack St James Cavalier and some fifty soldiers opened fire on the insurgents. In less than an hour St James was regained at the cost of only one casualty.
There was no popular uprising in the city in support of the zealous idealists and the ‘rebellion of the priest’ collapsed ungloriously after Grandmaster Ximenes had promised a pardon to the rebels. When a small number of those actively involved was revealed, the Grandmaster broke his solemn word and executed three of the rebels found in St James Cavalier, and placed their decapitated heads on the walls of the fortress.
Mannarino and the other ringleaders were imprisoned, but the death of Grandmaster Ximenes put a stop to the contemplated repressive and harsh measures. Mannarino was placed in close custody in Fort Manoel and a subsequent attempt to escape caused him to be guarded with severe rigour.
Mannarino had remained there until the arrival of Napoleon’s troops in 1789. On the 12th June 1789, on the same day that Grandmaster Hompesch received the order to leave the Island, Dun Mannarino was released from his prison cell and welcomed in the palace by Napoleon as a martyr to the cause of liberty and the brotherhood of man.
In 1789 Mannarino was sent out of the besieged city as an emissary of the Republican Government to plead with the insurgents. The new leaders of the people seized him and put him out of their way. Thereafter, Dun Gaetano Mannarino was discredited and forgotten in his own native land. He retired at the fishing village of St Julians and he died in a small house attached to the small chapel of the Conception at Spinola Bay. He died at the age of 81 and was buried at the old parish church of Birkirkara, where a memorial tablet was erected to his memory on 1 November 1931 through the initiative of Joe Dimech Debono. One of Dun Gaetano Mannarino's collateral descendants is none other than Dr Giorgio Borg Olivier, the architect of Malta's Independence in 1964.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.