A Star Undimmed

Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia on the First Centenary of his Death

Prof. Maria Frendo

‘He went through life undecked save with himself.’

Orator, musician, designer, a polymath like no other Gozo has seen. Mgr Farrugia’s peculiar power is to astonish even a hundred years after his passing. Synthesising the quality of his talents, this paper looks at Farrugia as a man of high culture steeped in the European civilisation into which he was born, bred and nurtured. The concepts of civitas and urbanitas as advocated by Cicero will be discussed with regard to Farrugia’s engagement in his work with the refinement of manners in the Classical sense, operating to the high standards he set himself in an insular climate that could not understand him all the time.

Maria Frendo is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Malta. She lectures on Chaucer, Milton, Dryden and Pope, T.S. Eliot, Romantics, Metaphysical Poetry, The Lyric, English Literature and Music, and Contemporary British Drama. She is Associate Editor of CounterText and a member of the Futures of Literature Network. She is also a professional musician, performing both as a pianist and a soprano. She has recorded for DECCA and GEGA labels, and performances have taken her to major venues in Europe and North America. She is co-organiser of the Victoria International Arts Festival, and curator of the Joseph Vella Archive at Il-Ħaġar Museum and Cultural Centre. For eight years she was also Deputy Chair of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. She was appointed to the National Order of Merit in 2012.

The talk will be followed by the launch of the publication of the late Stephen Attard’s (1966-2024) dissertation, Monsignor Giuseppe Farrugia: His Life and Achievements.

Seat reservations are recommended by sending an email to events@heartofgozo.org.mt.