Mikiel Fsadni
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Fr Mikiel Fsadni OP (1916 - 2013) was a Maltese priest and poet.
Fr. Mikiel was born in il-Birgu on 15 April 1916, the son of Joseph and Giovanna neé Cassano. He joined as a novice at the convent of the Dominicans in Rabat in 1933 and he made his First Profession on 21 October 1934. He was ordained priest on 11 June 1939. During the Second World War he formed part of the Dominican Community at the Convent of the Annunciation of Vittoriosa when the convent was wrecked by enemy bombs during the attack on HMS Illustrious in January 1941.
After the war he was assigned to the convent of St. Mary of the Grotto in Rabat, where he remained until a few months before he died, when he was recovering just a few steps away, at Villa Messina.
Literature
Fr. Mikiel will be remembered for his contribution to Maltese literature for his discovery, together with Profs. Godfrey Wettinger, in 1966, of what is so far considered as the oldest poem in Maltese - the Kantilena of Petru Kaxaru, as well as the publication of a study on the giren (Fsadni, Mikiel OP : THE GIRNA, Architectural and Ethnic Maltese Heritage, Dominican Publications, 1990) - which work has also been translated and published in the English Language. He also published a number of research works related to the Maltese Dominican Province, as well as other writings on Our Lady of the Grotto, venerated in the Church of the Dominicans at Rabat.
Awards & Recognitions
Fr. Mikiel Fsadni OP was awarded Member of the National Order of Merit for his literary work, especially for the discovery of Kantilena, during a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace on 13 December 2008. In 1975 he had already been awarded the Rothmans Prize for Literature, while for the book on The Girna, he was, in 1990, given the Gold Medal in the Literary Awards by the Government of Malta. On 7 September 2000 he was awarded Ġieħ il-Birgu.
He died on 18 April, 2013 at the age of 97. He was the eldest member ever of the Maltese Dominican Province.