Patriot

The biography of this personality has remained so elusive that until recently, even his name was a matter of controversy. In fact, he is traditionally known as ‘Matthew or Mattew Callus, but it has now been established that his real name was Ġużeppi.

Here we are taking extracts from a brief but historical biography written by medical historian, Dr Paul Cassar in 1980. Cassar claims that in the 16th Century, we come across a Maltese physician practising in Malta. He was Dr Joseph Callus or ‘Callusius’ according to his Latinised signature. As a medical man, his story is known to us only in bare outline, for he has come down in history more as an adventurer and, in the end, as a national hero than as a physician.

Born in Żurrieq in 1505, the son of pharmacist Girolamo and Beatrice, Callus intended to join the priesthood but later changed his mind and began to study medicine instead. It is not known where he pursued his studies, but it cannot be far wrong to suppose that he followed his medical education in Sicily. By 1530 Callus was practising in Syracuse where he had made a name for himself.

At this time the Order of St John of Jerusalem was in Syracuse making preparations for its embarkation to Malta where it would remain for the next 268 years. Callus appeared to have joined the medical service of the Order. He was employed as a naval physician onboard the largest ship in the Order’s fleet – the Sant’Anna.

After 1535 he was appointed physician of Mdina by the municipality of that city. Apart from attending the sick, Callus was also engaged in medico-legal work in the Bishop’s Curia which took cognizance of cases involving canon law. In 1542 he was appointed expert, with another physician, to examine the male partner in a suit brought before the ecclesiastical court for the annulment of marriage on the grounds that the marriage could not be consummated for medical reasons.

During the time of Callus, the current belief was that valuable treasures had been hidden in several parts of the island by the Arabs. Acting on this rumour, Callus submitted a petition to the Grand Master for permission to excavate for treasure in 1537.

He made a further request in 1558 but it is not known whether Callus carried his project into effect. What is certain is that Callus soon fell into disagreement with the Grand Master in connection with a private suit, which Callus had instituted against a second party for the recovery of the price of a schooner, because instead of having recourse to the Order’s Law Court for the settlement of the suit, he had applied to the Bishop’s Court. This move was interpreted by the Grand Master as an attempt to circumvent the authority of the Order and Callus was removed from his post of physician of Mdina and his salary was stopped in August 1558.

Callus did not abandon his patients and continued to visit the sick even when he was ill and had to be carried from house to house. In March 1560, Callus apologized to the Grand Master and was reinstated in his former post.

He clashed again with the Grand Master soon after. The real cause of this conflict is not known with certainty because the archives of the Law Courts of Mdina, were burned in 1798 during the French occupation of Malta.

There is evidence that the reason for Callus’s downfall was of a political nature. When the Knights of St John took posession of Malta in 1530, the Grand Master solemnly swore to respect the political liberties of the municipality of Mdina.

But in 1560, the Grand Master Jean de Valette took the imposition of taxes into his own hands and ordered the municipality to make an annual contribution to the Order’s treasury.

A number of citizens, who were discontented with this state of affairs, met secretly and drew up a petition addressed to King Philip II of Spain asking him to induce the Order to respect their rights and privileges.

Callus was alleged to have been the author of this document and the agent responsible for its transmission to Spain. The petition, however, never reached the king for it fell into the hands of the Grand Master. Callus was arrested with his collaborators in September 1560. He was tried, condemned to death for treason and hanged, probably at Saqqajja, Rabat in 1561. Callus’s funeral was organised by the archconfraternity of St Joseph, of Rabat.

The story of Callus – Un martire is the subject of a short novel in Italian, published in 1878 by Ramiro Barbaro. This novel was translated into Maltese by Ġużè Muscat Azzopardi. This gained a wide readership so much so that by 1921 it had been reprinted 16 times. According to Cassar, Callus is the only Maltese doctor to be immortalized in fictional literature.

In December 2002, Evarist Bartolo MP, organized a seminar entitled ‘Il-Ħajja ta’ Mattew Callus’ at Palazzo Magazzini, Mdina, and eventually a book Min kien Callus? was published. In 2006 Bartolo wrote a play based on Mattew Callus.

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