Adeodata Pisani a Mystic Nun in Mdina
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Adeodata Pisani A Mystic Nun in Mdina Peter Serracino Inglott Edited by Petra Caruana Dingli Photography & Design Daniel Cilia Acknowledgements Tanks are due, firstly, to the family of the late Rev. Professor Peter Serracino Inglott for granting permission to access his papers. Te encouragement and advice of Dr Louis Galea, former minister of education and friend of Father Peter over many years, was also vital to this publication. Abbess Maria Adeodata Testaferrata de Noto at St Peter’s Monastery never lost hope that Father Peter’s work on Adeodata Pisani would see the light of day. Without her personal commitment, this project would certainly not have materialized. Mgr Carmel Zammit, Bishop of Gibraltar, provided the monastery with his valuable support throughout. A special mention must go to Margaret Zammit, Father Peter’s dedicated personal secretary, and to the late Annabelle Vassallo, who had helped him draf and amend his ever-changing script at diferent stages over the years. More recently, several persons played a role, large and small, in helping this volume find its way. Tanks are due to Ranier Fsadni for providing valuable background and insights; to Dr Mary Ann Cassar for helping to locate the latest script; to Mgr John Azzopardi (known to all as Dun Ġwann) at the Wignacourt Museum in Rabat, Richard Cachia Caruana and Prof William Zammit for historical information; to Dr Sarah Galea; and to Mary Samut Tagliaferro at the University of Malta library. Te assistance of Brian Bonello and Veronica Mercieca during numerous visits to the monastery is greatly appreciated. Tere are surely many other persons to whom Father Peter would have liked to express his gratitude, and to acknowledge their role in the creation of his text. On his behalf, sincere thanks is hereby extended to them all. Petra Caruana Dingli July 2018 First published in 2018 by St Peter’s Monastery, Mdina © St Peter’s Monastery, Mdina Text © Te Authors Photography & book design © Daniel Cilia except pages 4, 5, 8, 24, 130, 199, 201 – photos supplied by the editor, page 11 & 102 – plan supplied by the Vatican All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers. Printed in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd., Gudja Road, Tarxien, GXQ 2902, Malta ISBN 978-99957-1-344-7 Photo front cover: Adeodata Pisani’s room at St Peter’s Monastery, Mdina. Painting endpapers: Adeodata Pisani as novice mistress – St Peter’s Monastery, Mdina. ii iii Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... iv Carmel Zammit Introduction: Visiting St Peter’s Monastery ............................................................................................................................................................. 2 Petra Caruana Dingli A Teological Reflection on Maria Adeodata Pisani: A Mystic Nun in Mdina ..................................................................14 Hector Scerri On the Shoulders of Sanctity .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 22 Ranier Fsadni Writings on Adeodata Pisani by Peter Serracino Inglott Dialogue with an Heiress – Te Secret Life of a Maltese Nun: Adeodata Pisani (1806-1855) ........28 Is-Soru ta’ L-Imdina – Oratorju f’Ħames Partijiet ..............................................................................................................................171 Appendix – Maestra di una spiritualità inclussiva ......................................................................................................................................191 References ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 192 Index of Names ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................197 Biographies ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 199 ii iii Preface When Fr Peter Serracino Inglott approached me to express his desire to write an in-depth and comprehensive biography of the life of Blessed Maria Adeodata Pisani some years afer her Beatification by Pope John Paul II in 2001, I have to admit that I was quite surprised but at the same time very enthused with the sugestion. I was aware that Fr Peter was a man who had encyclopaedic knowledge of most topics under the sun. But I never imagined that he would be interested in writing a biography of a female Maltese Saint, since I was not sure whether he had tackled such an enterprise before. At the same time I was sure that once he put his heart and mind in it the product will be supreme. One of the reasons that might have spurred Fr Peter to take on this venture might have been the fact that the present Mother Abbess, Sister Maria Adeodata Testaferrata de Noto, who is a distant relative of the Saint, was well known to him as a young child, since both lived in the same area in Tarxien. More important, Fr Peter was also very much attracted to monastic life. Due to circumstances best known to himself, he never actually embraced this vocation, but through his simplicity and humility he in fact practiced the monastic vocation ‘in spirit’. It did not take Fr Peter long to visit, with his secretary, the Benedictine monastery dedicated to St Peter in Mdina, where Blessed Maria Adeodata had spent twenty-five years as a Benedictine nun. He picked up the material he needed from the library in the monastery. A couple of books had been published about the life of the Blessed nun, mainly referring to facts about her life without any reflection or interpretation of these facts. A source for this biography was the spiritual diary that the Blessed had written, called Te Mystical Garden. But the main source was the Positio Super Virtutibus, which is a detailed compendium of all the evidence that was collected about the Saint’s life during the process of Beatification and Canonisation which examines the way the Blessed lived in a heroic way the theological and cardinal virtues. iv v Tis Positio was studied by a number of Cardinals in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints before recommending that a Decree declaring Maria Adeodata Blessed was signed by the Pope. Reading through this material, Fr Peter applied his vast knowledge about human nature, psychology, philosophy, the various spiritual influences on the Blessed, the history of the time and of the Benedictine order, and many other considerations which make this biography a treasure of knowledge applied to simple facts revealed about the Blessed Benedictine nun. Although Fr Peter declared in his preface not to let his imagination slip away from what is implied by the witnesses, his reflections depict a man who can be poetic and an artist in drawing pictures which bring to life all the colours that make this biography so gripping and informative. Reading through the narrative, one keeps discovering treasures of information which arise from simple facts or phrases used in the testimony about the saint. Whether it is a physical attribute about the saint, her way of behaving, her parental influences and other aspects that arise, Fr Peter makes the simple grow into an extraordinary insight into the spirituality of this saint which makes this biography such a pleasure to read. Carmel Zammit Bishop of Gibraltar 16 July 2018, Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel v Introduction Visiting S Pete’ s Monastey in Mdna Petra Caruana Dingli n 14 September 2001, I visited St Peter’s Monastery in Mdina with Peter Serracino Inglott. He was writing about Adeodata Pisani (1806-55) and I was helping him with some of the research. We spoke to Abbess Maria Adeodata Testaferrata de Noto, and viewed the rooms upstairs Oin which Maria Adeodata Pisani had lived. She had been beatified by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Malta four months earlier, on 9 May 2001. During that visit, Fr Peter was especially interested in examining the lace and beautiful embroidery that she created, and which is still preserved at the monastery. It was typical of Fr Peter to never be satisfied with his writings or consider them to be complete. Unless his scripts were wrenched out of his hands due to unavoidable deadlines, he would continue adding and changing phrases and paragraphs, with no end in sight. In 2001, we had already obtained quotes from printers and drafed a list of illustrations with a view to imminent publication. Yet he continued improving and expanding the text, intermittently, for another seven or eight years. In the