Arnold Cassola at Conference on the Beato Guglielmo in Scicli

Prof. Arnold Cassola, Senior Fellow at the University of Malta, was in Scicli, Sicily to take part in the conference organised on the "Beato Guglielmo".

Guglielmo was a hermit who lived in a cave in Scicli in the 14th century. He was beatified by Pope Paul III in 1537. Prof. Arnold Cassola spoke about "Malta, Scicli, Ragusa and the Beato Guglielmo". His intervention highlighted three links between Guglielmo and Malta. The first concerns an 18th century painting in Ragusa in the Church of Santa Maria d'Itria, which was believed to portray the Beato Guglielmo with what is possibly the Grand Harbour of Malta in the background. The second concerns a miracle which the Beato Guglielmo had performed on a Maltese person in the 14th century and the subsequent devotion of the Maltese. The third concerns a previously unknown Maltese architect, Antonio Cassar who, in 1621, had built a part of the Chiesa di San Matteo and Beato Guglielmo.

Arnold Cassola is the author of the volume The Maltese in Scicli and Capo Passero (1675-1777).