Salesian Scholar of Saintly Fame
The son of Giuseppe and Giovanna née Muscat, Nazzareno was born in Sliema. Although he sat for and passed an examination with the intention of becoming an apprentice at the Dockyard, with the opening of St Alphonsus Institute in Sliema, he enrolled as an external student. In one year Nazzareno Camilleri completed the two-year study programme, and on the initiative of Don Stella, in 1922, he was sent to continue his studies and joined the Salesian Order at San Gregorio di Catania in Sicily.
He made his first professional vows in October 1923. In 1926 he entered the Gregorian University from where he graduated in philosophy. In 1931 he pursued further theological studies. He was ordained priest in Malta on 30 September 1934 by Archbishop of Malta Dom Mauro Caruana, at the Salesian Oratory Chapel, Sliema.
Camilleri was appointed professor of theology and prefect of studies to the Salesians at San Callisto, Rome. In 1937 he was nominated professor of moral theology at the Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano (PAS) in Crocetta, Turin. He submitted his thesis in January 1940 and in June 1940 he was awarded a doctorate summa cum laude. Dean of the faculty of theology at the International Institute (PAS), Turin (1945-54), he taught many international students, including the Salesian cardinal Silva Raul of Chile and several Salesian bishops.
In 1940, when Italy entered World War II on the Axis side, Camilleri was interned, since as a Maltese citizen, he was a British subject. Nonetheless, the Italian aiuthorities, considering that he was not a dangerous person, chose to detain him in a Salesian residence. Consequently Fr Camilleri spent the war period in northern Italy; at Chieti, where he was director of the Salesian theology students and later at Montalenghi, where he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Philosophy.
In 1945 Camilleri returned to Turin as dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Salesian Pintifical University.
Camilleri participated in the third International Philosophy Congress of Thomistic Studies (1949), the First General Congress of Religious Orders (1950), and the First International Pedagogical Congress for Religious Nuns (1951).
Fr Nazzareno Camilleri was part of an ecclesiastical institution that specialised in youth formation, and this meant his goals were always directed towards very specific didactic ends. His method was speculative, to be sure but invariably adapted to the practical exigencies of his audience. The essence and core of his intellectual being flowed from a continuous affective relationship with the Ineffable. On one occasion, in semi-conscious rapture for five days and five nights, Camilleri put down, or rather scribbled, a full one hundred and sixty pages of mystic prose and verse. This seems to have been an experience that gave him a mystical aura which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Owing to ill health, Camilleri gave up teaching in 1966. During all these years Fr Nazzareno Camilleri taught students of different nationalities, some of them converts to the Catholic faith.
Camilleri suffered his first heart attack in May 1966. Between 20 June and 29 September 1972 he visited Malta for the first time. He died in Rome on 1 March 1973 and was buried at Genzano Cemetery near Rome.
He was much admired for his spirituality. In 1983, St John Paul II, Pope, gave permission for the start of the canonical process for his beatification and eventual canonisation.
A prolific religious writer, Camilleri published several books and over 400 spiritual writings in Salesian journals.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.