A study of the social background of the early members of the Maltese Society of Christian Doctrine M.U.S.E.U.M (1907- 1932)

Abstract

Till today, the history of the society is told from the perspective of the founder Saint George Preca or, as commonly known, Dun Ġorġ. In fact, Carmel Borg in his dissertation entitled The Society of Christian Doctrine 1907-1950: A Social History, unpublished B.A. honours dissertation, Department of History, University of Malta, 2000 says that an analysis must be carried out to understand the contribution of the members in the creation of this society. The aim of this dissertation is to retell the history of the society from the perspective of SDC members. Therefore, making this dissertation as the first history of the society from the perspective of its members. In this dissertation, I will give a better picture of the social background of the male members of the Society of Christian Doctrine M.U.S.E.U.M, who joined this association in the first years of its inception. I shall also try to attempt and delve into the field of cultural history and analyse the social background of the members of this society of which I am a member. As I will be working on this dissertation I will not be bias in my work as I will be showing the true reality of the members of this society in the period being studied. A correct historical analysis is still missing, particularly for the years between 1907 and 1921. No coherent historical picture of the members of this Society exists for the period in question because Saint George Preca or Dun Ġorġ Preca, the founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine M.U.S.E.U.M. did not want that the lives of the members to be remembered after their death as it did not project the saint hood that Dun Ġorġ wanted for his society and members. This is why I have decided to cover these specific years. This does not mean that I will not be researching the following decades, in particular those up until 1932, when the Society was officially approved by the Maltese Church. My dissertation will only focus on the Society in Malta becasue the Society in Gozo started after 1932. Thus, the society in Gozo can be studied as well. Primarily, the reason for this historical analysis is that documents and information about the first members are usually to found in written necrologies made after 1921 and only started to be published in 1961, a year before the death of Dun Ġorġ. Indeed, there are few primary sources covering the 1907-1921 period. The history of the first years of the society was built mostly on the memory of its first members, and it only started to be written down in 1980 by Alexander Bonnici. This explains why I refer to my study as Social history since, even though today, the history of memory and the history of emotions are considered as a separate field of study, it departs and is part and parcel of Social history. Furthermore, this choice of years is linked to the previous reason. The period in question, which is between 1907 till 1932, is blurred due to the fact that no precise and focused study was undertaken for these initial years of this society. As a member of the Society of Christian Doctrine (M.U.S.E.U.M.), I was always fascinated by the anecdotes that I used to hear, and still do, from the older members regarding the past of the Society especially their first hand experience with Dun Ġorġ. Some of these members did not personally experience certain anecdotes, but had heard them from their elders in the Society who in the meantime had passed away. Now, even these anecdotes are at risk of being lost as, in many cases, they were never recorded. For this dissertation I would not interview elder members because the members who remembers this period or have memories about the early members they are all death. What I have heard and was taught about the beginnings of this Society led me to ask several questions. Questions related to the early members, their social background, the growth of the society after 1907, as well as which social classes patronised the society in its early years. This degree in history gave me the opportunity to adapt them as research questions for my dissertation. Thus, my study was to create a list of all the first members who were incorporated in this society from 1907 till 1932. I was inspired by the list that Christopher Vella did in his dissertation: The Society of Christian Doctrine 1907-1981: Aspects of a History, upublished B.A. honours dissertation, Department of History, University of Malta, 2001. The list that I did for my dissertation is completely my original work and it became the foundation stone for my study. In the list of vella there were mistakes in the information about certain members and also members which incorporated in the period being studied were left out. Thus, making the list of vella not reliable. In fact, if one has to compare my list with the one of vella there is a big difference. My list was done to show the true identity of these members which were important for the Society in the period being studied. My list is more focused than vella. The word incorporated is a technical one, used by this Society to mean that an individual has become a member. In my list, I added when the member was born, died/resigned (left the Society), the year of incorporation, his place of birth, to which centre of Christian Doctrine he belonged when he became a member, the member work profession and other information about the member. Since this society started to open up a centre in each and every town and village in both Malta and Gozo, members were linked to the centre to which they belonged when they were aged eighteen or over – the age at which one can become a member in this Society. These centres are referred to as SDC centres. SDC is the acronym standing for Societa Doctrinae Christianae. As the name indicates, the founding father, who was a local priest by the name of Dun Ġorġ Preca, gave it a Latin name which still holds. However, as stated at the opening of this preface, I intend to go beyond the religious ontology of this society. These male members had their private lives. The members were all (and still are) volunteers with a vocation known as il-vokazzjoni Museumina, who dedicated their lives to the teaching of Catholic doctrine while living a lifestyle which is dedicated solely to God. Thus, establishing their correct profession and family background is extremely important in building a complete picture of the first years of existence of this society. This dissertation will consist of two chapters, apart the introduction, which are namely: The early memberships, and the work profession, the opening of the first centres and the impact of the founder on the early members. Throughout the dissertation, I will refer to some of the key events of the society as a background to my arguments, but the focus will remain on the individual stories of these first members. This does not mean that this dissertation will rely on qualitative analysis only. On the contrary, the gathering of this data helped me to undertake even quantitative analysis, and thus, the data figures were also plotted on tables and pie charts. No historian has the last word. Therefore, I hope that more historians will undertake research on the Society of Christian Doctrine, which in Malta is commonly known as M.U.S.E.U.M. or in the Maltese version of Mużew. M.U.S.E.U.M. is another acronym, this time round for the Latin phrase: "Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus" meaning “Master, may the whole world follow the Gospel”.