The Augustinian Institute

In 1998, the Provincial Chapter nominated the Revd Salvino Caruana OSA as successor to Revd Fr Edward Fenech OSA to direct the Augustinian Institute. Fr Caruana (1949 - ) holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Malta, the Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the New University of Malta, a Bachelor’s degree in Theology and a Master’s in Patristic Studies from the Augustinianum in Rome, as well as a Higher Diploma in Patristic Studies. In that same year Fr Caruana graduated STHD summa cum laude from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Malta with a thesis on the two books of Augustine’s De sermone Domini in monte (The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount). In 1998, the Institute was transferred from Valletta to Pietà, where the Institute could now avail itself of several rooms, offices and lecture halls, making up a much larger premises. The premises were soon gradually adequately furnished for two large lecture halls with all the necessary didactic instruments, secretary’s office, and a library specializing in works on the life and thought of St Augustine of Hippo and the Fathers of the Church. It was also made very clear that the Augustinian Institute would award no kind of academic degrees or any other official academic recognition. It was agreed, however, that a Certificate of Attendance would be awarded to participants.

The new administration immediately embarked on an Island-wide campaign publicizing as widely as possible, thanks to an attractive and colourful depliant, the new study-units offered at the Augustinian Institute. The results were gradually becoming very clear and indeed most encouraging. The highest number of participants ever reached was for the study-units of the academic year 2006/7, for which sixty-three participated for the Augustine For All series of lectures, whereas thirty participated for the eight two-hours sessions of the Intensive Study-Unit on St Possidius of Calama’s Vita Augustini.

Fr Caruana considered as a priority the publicizing of the new academic study-units that would be given at the Augustinian Institute. The academic year would now consist of three major courses on Augustine. The first and major study-unit would remain the 13 lectures in the Augustine For All series of lectures, from September to December of each year, and at the end of which a Certificate of Attendance was to be awarded to participants. The second study-unit would comprise the three lectures of the Annual Saint Augustine Lecture. A world famous scholar of Augustine’s works and thought would be invited to deliver three lectures on a given topic. For a couple of years, the lecturer was also taken to deliver a lecture at the Diocesan Seminary of Gozo. The main lecture in the Annual Saint Augustine Lecture was to be delivered to the Philosophy Society. The Annual St Augustine Lecture consists therefore of three lectures, two delivered at the University of Malta and a third to the participants in the Augustine For All series of lectures at the Augustinian Institute. The third, and final, academic study-unit at the Institute would be the Lectio Augustini. The Lectio would be held in the months of January and February of each academic year, and would consist of a series of eight two-hour sessions, during which an Augustinian text, or texts, would be read and analyzed.

The following have been the foreign speakers who have addressed the Annual Saint Augustine Lecture at the University of Malta:
1996 – Revd Professor Dr Robert Dodaro OSA Praeses Augustinianum – Rome.
1997 – Professor Dr Lewis Ayres, University of Durham, UK.
1998 – Revd Professor Dr Dr Dr Hubertus Drobner, University of Paderborn – Germany.
1999 – Professor Dr Kari-Elizabeth Børresen, University of Oslo, Norway.
2000 – Revd Professor Dr Gerald Bonner, University of Durham, UK.
2001 – Dr Carol Harrison, University of Durham, UK.
2002 – Professor Dr Michel Lamberigts, Dean Faculty of Theology KU Leuven, Belgium.
2003 – Professor Dr Pier Franco Beatrice, University of Padua, Italy.
2004 -
2005 – Professor Dr Johannes van Oort, University of Utrecht, Holland.
2006 – Prof Dr John Rist, University of Cambridge, UK.
2007 - Prof Dr Karla Pollmann St Andrew’s University, Scotland.
2008 – Prof Dr Robert Dodaro OSA PhD (Oxon.) STHD (Aug.)

Revd Salvino Caruana also recognized the great importance as well as a great priority running parallel to the reopening and resumption of the academic activity of the Augustinian Institute, the task of healing past grievances with some academic institutions and others on the Island. The more important were perhaps those which had arisen with the authorities of the State University of Malta, especially with the Faculty of Theology. But, there were also those which had arisen with the local ecclesiastical hierarchy, with whom relations had been severely strained. The results of his efforts were extremely encouraging. The change of direction of the Augustinian Institute in 1998, as well as the proposed new orientation of the teaching of Augustine at the Institute had set most of the above minds at rest. The task of grabbing and availing oneself of every opportunity for enhancing the influence, operation and recognition of the Institute, was considered as a major priority.

Tangible results followed these attempts to remedy the situation. For the first time ever, in 2000 the Local Archdiocesan Ecclesiastical Authorities allowed a 3-page article on the Augustinian Institute to be printed in the annual Archdiocesan calendar of events. The pages provided detailed information regarding the academic staff, as well as the administrative and operative setup of the Augustinian Institute. HE the Archbishop of Malta, Mgr Dr Joseph Mercieca, was also present for the 8th Annual Saint Augustine Lecture, 2004, held at the State University of Malta, The lay annual Malta Year Book too has since published rather scant, though extremely essential, information about the Augustinian Institute. In 1998, the State University of Malta acknowledged as valid credits, study-units in Augustinian theology and philosophy conducted at the Augustinian Institute. A kind of formal recognition of the academic importance and validity of the activities of the Augustinian Institute came in 2002, when the Rector of the State University of Malta, Professor Dr Roger Ellul Micallef MD PHD, presided the ceremony of the distribution of Certificates of Attendance given to participants in the 13-lecture credit on Augustine For All. During his concluding speech, Professor Ellul Micallef strongly encouraged in more ways than one, the validity and significance of the operations of such smaller academic institutions. In 2003, the Chancellor of the State University of Malta, Professor Dr John Rizzo Naudi MD, presided the ceremony of the distribution of Certificates of Attendance given to participants in the 13-lecture study-unit Augustine For All. But perhaps the greatest encouragement and support was forthcoming in more ways than one, from the Rector Emeritus of the State University of Malta, the Reverend Professor Dr Dr Peter Serracino Inglott, also a staunch supporter, promotor and contributor towards the professional and academic operations of the Augustinian Institute ever since the change of direction.

Several deans and heads of departments from the Faculty of Arts and various other faculties, especially from the Faculty of Theology Theology of the State University of Malta, have lectured at the Augustinian Institute since 1998. As a result, a good number (roughly 20/30) of students from the Faculty of Arts, the Dept. of Philosophy and from the Faculty of Theology, have been encouraged to follow study-units in Augustinian Theology, Philosophy and Spirituality at the Augustinian Institute. It was immediately recognized that the Augustinian Institute ought to work in this direction, seeking close collaboration with, and striving to enhance its ties with the State University of Malta on a variety of common projects, academic and other, as well as directing greater attention to the new situation of our adherence to the European Community and attempt to gain recognition and aid within its academic audit system (ECTS system).

In 1996, the State University of Malta under the rectorate of the Very Reverend Professor Peter Serracino Inglott (a great Maltese intellectual of international fame and also a renowned connoisseur of Augustine’s philosophy and theology) made it official and public that his institution would be promoting the study of Augustine. Fr Caruana was approached and the result of some meetings and discussions was the introduction of the Annual Saint Augustine Lecture in the State University’s academic calendar of events; the Lecture would also be under the direction of Revd Caruana and financed in part by the State University. The Lecture was officially inaugurated at the State University of Malta in 1996. The presence (now for the last eight years) of Revd S. Caruana on the board of the Archdiocesan Foundation for Theological Studies proved to be another important official recognition of the Augustinian Institute by the Maltese ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Annual Saint Augustine Lecture is also subsidized in part by the Foundation. Moreover, in 2002, the Most Reverend Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, Robert Prevost OSA, nominated the Revd Caruana as member of the International Commission for Augustinian Institutes of Research and Studies. In 2004, the State University of Malta’s official radio, Campus FM, began a programme transmitting all the fourteen lectures in the Augustine For All series of lectures. Finally, thanks to another staunch supporter of the Augustinian Institute, Professor Dr Dr Joe Friggieri, Head of the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts, the study-unit The Philosophy of St Augustine became a compulsory study-unit in the curriculum for the BA Hons degree in the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts as from the academic year 2006/2007.

...yes indeed now it truly is! But not in the eventuality of any unforeseen calamity such as heavy rainfall, floods, or some kind of electrical hazards...not at all. God has heard my prayers to send someone who could not only be at my side in the life and running of the Augustinian Institute, but someone in whom one could really see a valid successor in this very important field of activity of the life of the Augustinian Province in Malta. As soon as the Very Reverend Fr. Emanuel Borg Bonello assumed the initial stages of responsibility in the new office of Prior Provincial of the Maltese Augustinian Province, I was one of the first Augustinians he approached for consultation regarding the future of my activity during his four-year term of office (2010-2014). With the prudence, foresight and sensitivity characteristic of Fr. Emanuel, he first inquired about my health, then we started discussing other matters. Towards the end of our two-hour discussion I played my trump card...the fulfilment of my desire to set my mind at ease for now, but eventually then also at rest, of having a successor in the person of Fr. Pierre Desira whom I also desired to see through his doctorate in sacred theology with specialization in patristics. This was the same refrain I insisted on singing at the election of other past superiors of our Province, and now too with Fr. Emanuel. I explained to the latter how a Maltese Augustinian candidate for s PhD at KU Leuven would also be most welcome. I have now been for years in touch with the Dean (now emeritus and whom I had invited to deliver the Annual St. Augustine Lecture at the University of Malta) Prof. Dr. Michel Lamberigts, and Prof. Dr. Anthony Dupont, his assistant, and also colleague of mine.

Fr. Borg Bonello’s next question could have easily meant my downfall...! He then asked me whether I would then be physically able to see the Augustinian Institute through for another four-year term very often without Fr. Pierre’s presence as he would now have to spend long periods of time away for research purposes and other. I had quite nearly foreseen the problem and had therefore consulted myself with my other nearest colleagues, Antoinette Borg, the secretary, and France and Antoinette...their reply was: “definitely yes ... go ahead and accept, we will be by your side life and limb...”!

I must say too that this was also my suggestion to the Revd Ray Francalanza over ten years ago now, that after he finished his terms of office as Headmaster of St. Augustine’s College at Pieta’, he take higher studies leading to a doctorate in theology with specialization in the writings and theology of the Fathers of the Church, in our case, preferably in those of Saint Augustine of Hippo. As a matter of fact I have lately also had my desire and dream fulfilled when Ray graduated STD at the University of Malta with a thesis Sign & Signification. Networks of Discernment in the Church (395pp).

Pierre hails from Zejtun (Malta) and was born in 1973. He spent his years of primary education at the Zejtun State Primary School. Pierre went through his secondary education at the Junior Lyceum “Mikiel Anton Vassalli”. He then went through his Higher Secondary years, and Sixth Form. In 1990 Pierre was received as pre-Novice in the Augustinian Province of Malta. After three years at the University of Malta, in 1994, Pierre graduated B.A. in Philosophy. Soon after, he was sent to complete his Novitiate year in the Augustinian Monastery of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine (Mc) Italy. Back to Malta, Pierre completed his theological formation at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Malta and in 1998 he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Sacred Theology. In that same year, Pierre was admitted for his Solemn Vows in the Augustinian Province of Malta.

Pierre was again sent to further studies at the Augustinianum in Patristics. In the year 2000, Pierre was ordained to the Priesthood. In that same year he was asked to go to give a helping hand to our priests in the Maltese Augustinian mission in Annaba, Algeria. In 2003, he also succeeded in finishing his STHL thesis and graduated in Patristic Studies at the Augustinian University, the Augustinianum in Rome. At present Pierre occupies the posts of Co-director of the Augustinian Institute, where he has been academically active for these last four years, and that of Assistant Headmaster of Saint Augustine’s College in Pieta’.

Fr. Pierre’s sound computer knowledge was acknowledged by the new Superior Fr. Emanuel Borg Bonello, and Pierre was asked to head and direct the rather difficult and complicated organizational and coordination of the secretarial machine supporting all the meetings and activity of the 29-strong Maltese elected participants celebrating the Maltese Augustinian Province Ordinary Chapter 2010. However, on Monday 5th April, on the very first day of the opening of the Chapter that is, a very significant secret vote had to be taken in the afternoon, as a result of which Fr. Pierre was elected Province Counsellor for the first time, and myself for the fifth time now. I had also served for the first time between 1982 and 1986 to the late Prior Provincial the VR Fr Dominic Portelli (+2009), during whose tenure of office I had also served as Province Secretary and Headmaster of St. Augustine’s College; for a second four-year term to Fr. Portelli, between 1986-1992, for a third time during the VR Fr Adeodatus Schembri’s tenure of office between 1992 and 1996, for the fourth time, again to Fr. Schembri, between 1986-1990, and now for the fifth time, during Fr. Borg Bonello’s term of office 2010 and 2014. These Province posts also indicate and augur well for the future and life of the Augustinian Institute. Pierre with God’s help and your keen desire to come to delve deeper in the thought of our common Father and Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo, I am positive that you will succeed in going through it all.