At Valletta on the island of Malta, Blessed George Preca, priest, who, lovingly devoted to the task of providing for the catechetical instruction of children, founded the Society of Christian Doctrine for the provident witnessing of the word of God among the people.
Lifespan: 1880–1962
Beatified: 9 May 2001 by Pope John Paul II, Malta
Canonized: 3 June 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI, St. Peter’s Square, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 26 July
M.U.S.E.U.M.: Magister, utinam sequatur Evangelium universus mundus — Divine Master, may the whole world follow the Gospel.
George Preca was born on 12 February 1880 in Valletta, Malta, the son of Vincenzo and Natalina Ceravolo. On 17 February he was baptized in the Parish Church of Our Lady of Porto Salvo in Valletta. In 1888 the Preca family moved to the commercial town of Ħamrun, a short distance from Valletta, where the young George received Confirmation and his First Communion in the Parish Church. After completing his classical secondary studies he entered the Seminary of Malta to study Theology, intent on becoming a priest.
Between 1905 and 1906 George Preca gathered a group of young men in Ħamrun and began a series of formative meetings with them. He chose one of them, Eugenio Borg, and formed him in the reading of the Sacred Texts (Eugenio later became the first Superior General of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae [SDC] and died in the odour of sanctity). Don George was ordained to the priesthood on 22 December 1906. For several weeks thereafter he left home only to celebrate Holy Mass, spending the remainder of his time in prayer and contemplation. Towards the end of January 1907 he summoned the group of young men together again, and on 2 February they met in the church known as Ta’ Nuzzu in Ħamrun for a lesson given by Don George. On the following 7 March they gathered in a small premises they had meanwhile taken on lease. These two dates mark the beginning of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae: a group of young laymen formed in the ascetic life and in the principles of the Catholic faith, and sent out to teach the people. At first Don George called his society the “Societas Papiduum et Papidissarum” (he wished to give great prominence to filial fidelity towards the Pope). Meanwhile, however, another name was chosen for the new group, almost as a joke: “museum.” The name found favour, and Don George turned it into an acronym: “Magister utinam sequatur Evangelium universus mundus!” In 1910 the women’s section of the SDC was inaugurated with the help of Giannina Cutajar. As time passed, the character of the society took clearer shape: celibate lay workers wholly devoted to the apostolate of catechesis for children and adults alike; a life of great discipline, modesty in dress, a series of brief prayers to be recited from memory at each quarter of the hour (the Orologio Museumino, or Museum Prayer Clock), one hour of catechesis each day in centres opened in almost every parish across the Maltese Islands, and one hour of ongoing formation for the members.
The foundation also had its difficult moments and times of severe trial. In 1909 Don George received an order to close all the centres. The Servant of God obeyed without complaint. It was the parish priests themselves who protested to the Bishop, and the order was revoked. During 1914 and 1915 defamatory and contemptuous articles about the MUSEUM society appeared in certain Maltese newspapers, but Don George imposed upon his members a vow of meekness and taught them to endure the contempt of the world with serenity. In 1916 the Bishop of Malta ordered an inquiry into the work of the society, which concluded in favour of Blessed Preca. Some changes were required, but the path towards canonical recognition and the growth of the society was now fully open. The decree of canonical erection bears the date 12 April 1932.
The founder of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae laboured untiringly as an apostle of the Gospel on the islands of Malta. He wrote in Maltese a great many booklets on dogmatic and moral theology as well as ascetics. But the most keenly felt influence of his work lay in the dissemination of the Word of God, translated into Maltese and presented in short passages easy to memorize or in booklets of meditation — always, in any form, the subject of the fervent preaching of Don George and his followers. He was a counsellor known for his prudence and wisdom, and many people came to him for a word of comfort and encouragement.
Don George was also a great apostle of the mystery of the Incarnation. From 1917 he propagated devotion to the words “Verbum Dei caro factum est” (cf. John 1:14) and wished the members to carry them as an emblem; and from 1921 the society organized a public celebration in honour of the Infant Jesus in every village on the eve of Christmas.
In a moment of severe trial, Don George resolved to entrust himself entirely to the protection of the Virgin Mary. On 21 July 1918 he enrolled in the Third Order of Carmel, taking at his profession in September 1919 the name Brother Franco; he also wished all the members and the children who attended the MUSEUM sections to wear the Brown Scapular. He had a particular devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel and was insistent in propagating the Miraculous Medal. In 1957 he proposed five new mysteries for the Holy Rosary, which he called the “Mysteries of Light.”
In 1951 the project of the St. Michael Secondary School was begun. In 1952 five members were sent to open MUSEUM centres in Australia. (Today the Society is also present in England, Albania, Kenya, Sudan, and Peru.) In 1954 the General House of the SDC and a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal were inaugurated. In 1955 Don George blessed the foundation stone of the Sacred Family Institute at Żabbar, Malta, which became the House for the Internal Members (founded in 1918 at Żebbuġ, Malta) and still today houses the SDC’s printing house, the Veritas Press.
In October 1952 Don George was appointed Secret Chamberlain to His Holiness, a gesture that proved no small source of mortification for him.
After a long life of total dedication to the apostolate, the Servant of God breathed his last in the odour of sanctity on 26 July 1962 at his home in Santa Venera, Malta. After the funeral in the Parish Church of Ħamrun, his remains were interred in the crypt of the SDC General House at Blata l-Bajda, which immediately became a place of pilgrimage.
George Preca was beatified by the Holy Father John Paul II in Malta on 9 May 2001, a date chosen also as the liturgical memorial of this Maltese blessed, a forerunner of the lay apostolate.