GOZO DIDN’T NEED MARTYRS. IT NEEDED A PRIEST WHO FINISHED THE JOB.
By Mario Attard
In March 1530 Charles V handed Gozo to the Knights of St John. Take good care of it, he begged them. At first they did little. In July 1551 the Turks stormed Iċ-Ċittadella. The old walls had no flanks and no terreplein. They could not stand gunpowder. Within days the fortress fell. About 5,000 Gozitans were carried off as slaves.
Grand Master Juan de Homedes thought of leaving the citadel empty. Look after Malta, he reasoned, and let Gozo go. The few who remained thought otherwise. In under four years the Matrice was at work again. They rebuilt their church and their houses. They talked the Knights into taking care of the island.
Two centuries and a half later Bonaparte pushed the weak Knights out of Malta. On Gozo the French met a different welcome. Gozitans had not forgotten Dragut and how he had wiped them out. They rose. Archpriest Saverio Cassar of the Matrice led them. They shut every French soldier on the island inside Iċ-Ċittadella. The garrison gave in. For almost two years Gozo stood as its own country: La Nazione Gozitana. That ended when Nelson took charge of the islands’ defence.
Malta still makes a show of Dun Mikiel Xerri and the men shot in Palace Square. Gozitans stay quieter. They keep Cassar’s name. He did not die in the square. He locked in the invaders like poultry. In Malta the French were warmly received when they landed and the gold disappeared. Two priests. Two islands. Two results.
Each 16 September the Cathedral Archpriest and his canons say Mass in commemoration of the founding of the Gozo diocese by Pius IX. Cassar’s name is spoken, though he lived well before the diocese was created. A few days ago, this year’s sermon began with thanks: first to God, then to those who went before. Cassar came first among them. He worked to prepare the ground for a bishop of Gozo’s own. Gozitans still speak of him when they look back. They have quietly erected a monument in his honour in the main square of Victoria.
The islands still think differently. Malta takes up every fashion from abroad — divorce, euthanasia, the rest. Gozo holds back. It looks after family and parish. A little of Saverio Cassar lives in many Gozitan houses: a practical man from Għajnsielem who finished what he started, not one who folds when hostilities press.
If he were to come back among us today, he would not recognize several factions that dictate modern life, especially people who treat religion as optional branding. He was Catholic, local, and anti-occupation. He organised a revolt, ran Gozo as a short-lived polity, and wanted a separate diocese. He was a clerical strongman in a small island crisis. We need leaders like him more than ever.