The son of Judge Giuseppe Francesco Falzon and Maria Teresa née Debono, Ignazio was born in Valletta. He was the brother of Mgr Francesco Falzon-Debono, Rev. Calcedonio and Antonio, an advocate.
As a child, he impressed everyone with his kindness and generosity and fervent prayers in churches and in his family’s private chapel. He attended catechism lessons in two churches of Valletta and received the sacrament of confirmation on 3 August 1822.
Encouraged by his father, Falzon entered the UM and graduated in civil and canon law (1833), but he never practised this profession.
Meanwhile, he studied the English language, which was very important to establish contact with the British, who were arriving in Malta in great numbers because of the Crimean War. On 21 December 1828 he put on the clerical habit and, three years later, he received the minor orders. As he considered himself not worthy, he refrained from acceding to the priesthood.
Falzon was a man of prayer and great sacrifice whose love for the poor had no limits. He helped generously all those in need and gave legal advice for free. He attended Mass and received Holy Communion every day; he had a fervent devotion towards Our Lady and St Joseph.
Falzon’s main mission was the teaching of catechism and he is remembered for his catechetical mission among the British soldiers and sailors. He began to teach them in his own house, but later he used to gather them in the Jesuit church at Valletta. He prepared no fewer than 650 Protestants to receive baptism. He also organised prayer groups for Catholic servicemen before their departure for the war. Servicemen used to trust him with their precious belongings before they went to war and to send on to their families, if anything happened to them.
Falzon wrote and published a prayer book entitled The Comfort of the Christian Soul for servicemen in Malta. He also brought many religious books from England and distributed them among soldiers and sailors.
Falzon did not enjoy good health and suffered frequent heart attacks, dying on his 52 birthday. He was buried in Ta’ Ġieżu church, Valletta.
On 23 October 1987, Pope John Paul II decreed that Falzon had lived the theological and cardinal virtues in a heroic way. His remains were exhumed on 9 April 2001 and transported to the convent of the Franciscan Minors, Valletta. His body had been exhumed on two other occasions: in 1869 and in 1952 when the Maltese archdiocese had started the process of his beatification. Falzon’s remains were placed beneath an altar at Ta’ Ċejlu church in Valletta.
A case of extraordinary healing through his intercession was examined by the Congregation of the Causes of Saints. The case concerned a Maltese citizen, Anthony Gambin, who, in 1981, after he had been operated on for a serious tumour, doctors were convinced that he would die. Gambin called for Falzon’s intercession and, although he walked out of hospital afraid, for some inexplicable reason his health improved, even through he did not receive any chemotherapy treatment.
Medical experts who examined the case declared that there was no medical explanation for Gambin’s healing. Anthony (Tony) Gambin died on 15 February 2021, 40 years after he was told he had days to live’.
On 24 April 2001 the official degree of Falzon’s beatification of Nazju was published and on the following 9 May, John Paul II beatified him at the Granaries, Floriana together with the Blessed (later Saint) Ġorġ Preca and the Blessed Maria Adeodata Pisani.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.