The year 2022 brings a twofold remembrance to Fr Mark Cauchi, OSA. It is the 75th year of his religious profession in the Augustinian Order (June 26, 1947) and it marks the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination (December 20, 1952).
Born in Cospicua on July 5, 1928, to Mark and Frences Maria née Carbonaro, he was baptised at the Cospicua collegiate and named Carmel.
He received his primary education at the local government elementary school.
At the onset of World War II, the Cauchi family moved to Birkirkara. There, Carmel continued his primary education at Birkirkara’s Collegiate Chapter Hall since the school was used as a hospital. Four years later, he started his secondary education at St Aloysius College, Birkirkara.
From Birkirkara, the family moved to Santa Venera. There he felt the call to join the Augustinian Order. Fr Evodius Bonnici OSA, provincial of the order, granted his request. On January 20, 1946, he received the white robe of the Augustinian at St Augustine’s church, Victoria.
On entering the Augustinian Order, he was given the name of Mark, thus emphasising the beginning of his religious life and in honour of St Mark, the evangelist and patron of the Maltese Augustinian Province. On January 26, 1947, he made his simple profession of vows at St Augustine’s church, Victoria.
Six months later, he was sent to the monastery of St Mark, Rabat to commence studies in philosophy and theology. The solemn profession of vows followed on February 5, 1950.
On December 20, 1952, he was ordained priest by Mgr Mikiel Gonzi, archbishop of Malta, at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. He sang his first solemn mass on Christmas Day 1952 at St Mark’s church, Rabat.
In the following five years, Fr Mark served in the convents of Rabat and Victoria. Above all, he started teaching at the Augustinian’s college, Tarxien.
In 1958, he was sent to Tunis, as vicar-cooperator of the Sacre Coeur parish in Bab-El-Khadra, where there were more than 32,000 Christians of different nationalities, among them many Maltese. There he stayed till 1963, in which period he took also the role of notary in matrimonial cases at the curia of the archdiocese of Tunis.
His literary work was given international recognition
From 1963, Fr Mark was sent to the parish of La Goulette, on the outskirts of Tunis, led by the Maltese Augustinians. There he served as vicar-cooperator as well as vicar of the Maltese in Tunisia. He also gave pastoral assistance at the basilica of St Augustine in Hippo, in the nursing home of the Petites Soeurs des Pauvres and also in the parish of Sainte Monique, in Joannonville, in the periphery of Hippo, today Annaba.
In 1968, he was called back to Malta and sent to accomplish pastoral work in the church of the Our Lady of Good Council, Paceville, which was still under construction. In 1970, Fr Provincial Egidio Galea, OSA, placed him as master of novices at St Rita’s convent, St Julian’s.
A year-and-a-half later, he was asked to carry out pastoral work at St Augustine’s College, Pietà. Thus, he started teaching again in this school run by the Augustinian monks, which had, by then, moved from Tarxien to that locality, where it is still today. Apart from teaching, he also served as college secretary as well as librarian.
In 1974, he was awarded a scholarship by the French government to study in France at the University of Grenoble. There he pursued studies in methodology, stylistics, literature, history and translation, both in the journalistic and literary fields.
In the provincial chapter held in 1978, Fr Provincial Albert Borg OSA sent Fr Mark to St Nicholas convent, Tarxien, to carry out pastoral work in that locality, concurrently with his teaching duties at the college in Pietà, where he taught until 1982.
In 1982, Fr Dominic Portelli, OSA, the newly-elected provincial, sent Fr Mark to the Valletta convent and appointed him chaplain and confessor of the Augustinian sisters of the monastery of St Catherine. In 1986, he was placed on the presbyteral college of St Augustine’s parish, Valletta. Four years later, he was sent to San Mark’s monastery, Rabat.
Finally, in 2002, Fr Provincial Lucian Borg, OSA, asked him to return to the Valletta convent, where he is still today. Fr Mark was, for many years, provincial archivist, where he numbered all the manuscripts of the province’s archive and also began the cataloging of the same archive.
During the full decade of the 1990s, Fr Mark served the Augustinian sisters of Santa Maria Presentata, in Poschiava, which is part of the diocese of Coira, in Switzerland, where his pastoral work was not only in that monastery but also in the general hospital, in the Fondazione San Sisto, in the old people’s home and in the school.
Fr Mark also spent some time working in the Sanctuary of St Rita, in Barona, Milan, in the basilica of San Nicola di Tolentino, Macerata and in the Augustinian convent of Catania.
He is the author of several books, especially historical ones, as well as a columnist in local and foreign journals and periodicals. He is a regular contributor to Augustinian journals with articles on history, mainly that of the Augustinian Order. He also wrote in foreign magazines such as Perspettive of Catania and Confraternite Internazionali which is published in Rome.
His literary work was given international recognition on August 22, 2009 when the Commune of Valverde, Catania bestowed honorary citizenship to Fr Mark per essersi particolarmente distinto nel campo della letteratura trattando numerose tematiche religiose, storiche e politiche (for having distinguished himself particularly in the field of literature dealing with numerous religious, historical and political themes).
We wish Fr Mark good health and blessings from the Lord.