The arrival of St Anne’s statue 75 years ago coincides with Fr Agius’s death 56 years ago

Fr Tarcisio Agius, the youngest of the 14 children of Carmelo Agius of Lija and Felicita Agius (née Muscat) of Żurrieq, was born in Żabbar on May 5, 1914. He was baptised by Fr Salvatore Gatt, vice parish priest of Żabbar, on May 7, 1914 and received the names Espedito, Stephen, Gratio and Crescentius.

Fr Tarcisio Agius chiselling the first groove into the rough wood that would became the statue of St Anne.

Gatt would eventually become parish priest of Marsaxlokk in 1926 and, later, when Agius was ordained, Gatt would gift Agius a precious statue of Our Lady of Pompei.

Agius received his elementary education in Żabbar. His sister, Annie was his teacher and used to tell young Tarcisio not to call her by her first name at school. The prime of his youth was spent at the minor seminary and, then, at the major seminary.

The Church authorities acknowledged Agius’s vocation and so he started to receive minor orders and then major orders: first the subdiaconate, then the diaconate on  September 19, 1936 and, finally, his ordination on July 25, 1937 by Michael Gonzi, then bishop of Gozo. Agius said his first mass a day later, on July 26, and his first high mass on August 8 of that year.

After fulfilling his duty as a teacher of religion at St Aloysius College,  Agius continued his apostolic mission in Marsascala, which had been a vice parish of Żabbar since 1918, with Fr Elezzaro Balzan (1918-1925), Fr Karm Diacono (1925-1929), Fr Aloysius Psaila (1930-1935) and Fr Joseph Mari (1936-1943) serving as its rectors before Agius.

Agius’s ministry in Marsascala was not a form of French promotion; Bishop Mauro Caruana saw Agius’s qualities and the needs of the seashore town’s growing flock. When Agius went to Marsascala, he found a village without electric lighting but not without the light of faith. In Marsascala, he lived with Fr William Bailey, the military chaplain. He then moved to Villa Glenbeg and took up residence in a house adjacent to the old church.

St George Preca encouraged Agius to dedicate the parish to St Anne

Agius saw the value of both reason and faith. Just a year after he moved to Marsascala, in 1944, he sought to set up both the primary school and the Society of Christian Doctrine. The first school would be Villa Mondello. The growing flock of Marsascala also required both a bigger church and the conferment of the title of parish, a title which the seashore village received in 1949.

This photo is dated March 19, 1947, when Marsascala become a parish. Bishop Emmanuel Galea is seen with Fr Agius at the entrance of the old church.

Agius initially toyed with the idea of dedicating the parish to Our Lady of Lourdes. His doubts concerning the dedication were cast aside when a certain Carmelo Agius of Valletta visited his parish, claiming that he had a dream in which St Anne told him that, while her daughter had plenty of parishes dedicated to her, she did not have even one. She asked him to give this message to the parish priest of Marsascala.

Carmelo was not previously acquainted with Fr Agius. Nonetheless, his message struck a chord because he shared his name with Agius’s late father. Over the course of his lifetime, he had at least 12 relatives named Anne, Annie, Anna or Anni. One of these was Anna Ruggier, the niece of Fr Agius. She was one of the kindest people I ever met, living a life of prayer and devotion. I still recall the picture of Fr Agius displayed in her living room.

Ferdinand Stufflesser of Bolzano giving the last touch to the statue of St Anne.

St George Preca, a devotee of St Anne himself, encouraged Agius to heed the advice and dedicate the parish to St Anne. He used to ask Agius for permission to spend a day in retreat each month in the parish of St Anne. Agius would go to the chapel to ring the midday bell and ask St George Preca whether he needed anything. He would often find St George prostrate before the altar.

Now that the parish had a dedication, the edifice needed a statue. A new statue of St Anne was commissioned from Ferdinand Stufflesser of Ortisei, Bolzano. The statue was paid for by Spiru Vella of Vittoriosa. Vella had vowed to the saint that if his three sons outlived World War II, he would donate the statue to the church.

Stufflesser gave Agius the honour of chiselling the first groove into the rough wood that would become the statue of St Anne. The statue was transported on a barge to the area known as is-Siberja, then driven into town on a truck. The statue was then carried to the church via La Sengle Street.

Fr Agius on becoming the first parish priest of Marsascala wearing the ring and rużetta donated to him by the Marsascala people.

Carmelo Grima of Żejtun paid for a pedestal for the statue. When the statue arrived at the square, Agius presented his ring (rużetta) to the statue of St Anne. This ring had been given to him by the people of Marsascala upon becoming parish priest.

The dream that inspired the statue was followed by the desire to build a church that would better fit the new community. Marquise Maria Carmela Apap Bologna, widow of Felicissimo Apap Bologna, donated a coastal plot of land and the plans for the parish were drawn up by William F. Micallef and Vincent Bonello.

Ten years after Marsascala had received the title of parish, the transept of the church was completed. However, the construction of the church paused for 10 years due to lack of funds, during which period the original plans were first amended and then replaced. To raise the necessary funds, Agius organised fairs, plays, football matches and a coupon fundraiser. In the winter, he would show movies approved by Fr La Spina of the Catholic Action.

Tarcisio as an altar boy at the age of 11.

Former president Anton Buttigieg went to the seminary with Agius and they became good friends. In the mid-1940s, Buttigieg contacted  Agius and sought his help in ordering a crucifix from Bolzano, aware that his friend was familiar with the Stufflesser family. Today, the crucifix is still on display in the church of Qala in memory of Buttigieg.

Years later, at the height of the politico-religious dispute of 1958-1969, Buttigieg met Agius in Valletta and asked him: “Kif int Ċis? Kemm ilni ma narak” (“How are you? Long time no see”) and Dun Tarċis replied: “Ton ser nkellmek għax Kristu qalli biex inkellem l-għedewwa tiegħi.” (“Ton, I’m going to speak to you because Christ told me to speak to my enemies”.)

Another fellow student of Agius at the seminary was Dom Mintoff. Although Mintoff and Agius got on rather well during their school years, once Mintoff became prime minister, their relationship deteriorated. Agius once got in trouble with Mintoff because Mintoff withheld permission for a lottery that Agius was organising. While informing him of this decision, Mintoff told Agius that the Labourites supported him. With tongue-in-check, Agius replied that he knew that the Labourites supported and liked him but their leader neither liked nor loved him.

On November 30, 1960, Agius retired from his duties and moved to Balzan to live with his niece, Lilian Ruggier and his brother, Saviour. He briefly returned to teaching at Maria Regina Secondary School in Blata l-Bajda. During his absence from the parish, Fr Aloysius Zammit, a priest from Żejtun, fulfilled his duties as vice parish priest in his stead.

A few years later, Agius was pierced by a sharp thorn from a rose while gardening  and contracted tetanus. He died on  July 30, 1966, having said his last Mass on July 26, the liturgical feast day of St Anne and the same date on which he had celebrated his first Mass. His brothers Vincent, who had gone to America in the 1920s, and Hannibal, who had gone to Australia in the 1950s, had spent a holiday together in Malta in June 1966, just one month before his death. This meant that they were coincidentally present for his funeral. A sum of £17 7s 6d was collected to say Gregorian Masses for the repose of his soul. He was buried in the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery.

Agius received neither the red biretta of a cardinal nor the purple filettata of a bishop but his parochial ministry serves as a lasting symbol of his faith in Christ’s message. He became the kernel of wheat that fell on the ground and, when it died, produced many fruit. 

Acknowledgements

Edgar Ruggier, nephew of Fr Tarcisio Agius, for relating the anecdotes mentioned above and Malcolm Schembri, author of Il-Kappillan Dun Tarċis Agius (1914-1966), Storja u Kultura Żabbar (2016).

Marsascala celebrated the feast of St Anne on July 31.