Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Saverio Cassar

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Church
  
Roman Catholic

Died
  
16 December 1805, Malta

Nationality
  
Maltese

Ordination
  
30 March 1771

Born
  
December 29, 1746 Malta (
1746-12-29
)

Buried
  
Cathedral of the Assumption, Gozo

Place of burial
  
Cathedral of the Assumption, Gozo, Victoria, Malta

Diocese
  
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta

Saverio Cassar (29 December 1746 – 16 December 1805) was a Gozitan priest and patriot, who was Governor-general of a de facto independent Gozo from 1798 to 1801.

Contents

Life

Cassar was born in Gozo on 29 December 1746. He studied in Rome, being ordained a priest on 30 March 1771. He was nominated archpriest of the Gozo Matrice in 1773, and he became Provicar of Gozo in 1775.

On 3 September 1798, Gozitans rebelled against the French occupiers, and on 18 September Cassar was appointed head of the Government and Superintendent of the Island of Gozo. The French garrisons at the Cittadella and Fort Chambray surrendered to the British on 28 and 29 October, and the British handed over the island to Cassar. He subsequently ruled Gozo as a kind of independent state, recognizing Ferdinand III of Sicily as king. Cassar also petitioned for establishing Gozo as a separate diocese (the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gozo was eventually created in 1864).

The Maltese Congress of Mdina (ruled by the British) disapproved of Cassar's actions, and on 20 August 1801 the British appointed Emmanuele Vitale as Governor of Gozo instead of Cassar.

Cassar died on 16 December 1805 at the age of 58. In 2005 a monument to him was inaugurated in Gozo

Saverio Cassar "Governor-general"

On 2 September 1798, the Maltese rebelled against the French in Mdina, requesting to return under the "Kingdom of Sicily" rule. Word spread and the Gozitans revolted on 3 September. The archpriest and parish priest of the town of Rabat, Saverio Cassar, was chosen as the revolt's leader on 18 September. The rebel headquarters was established in the Banca Giuratale (which is now the seat of the Victoria Local Council). Saverio Cassar (who was born in a Sicilian family resident in the Maltese islands since the XIV century) organized the dejma ("decima" in Italian) and collected money to pay the troops under his command. Pro-French partisans were arrested, including three canons.

The French garrison held out in the Cittadella and Fort Chambray, until they capitulated on 28 October after negotiations which were made with the help of Sir Alexander Ball. The 217 French soldiers there agreed to surrender without a fight and transferred the island, its fortifications, 24 cannons, a large quantity of ammunition, and 3,200 sacks of flour to the British.

A day later, the British transferred control of the Cittadella and the rest of the island to the Gozitans. The people declared Ferdinand III of Sicily as their monarch, and set up a provisional government led by Saverio Cassar, who became Governor-general. The provisional government included several British and Maltese representatives, and their first action was to distribute the captured food supplies to the island's 16,000 inhabitants.

The Neapolitan flag (which later became the flag of the Two Sicilies) was flown over Gozo, and munitions and supplies arrived from Naples, with King Ferdinand praising his "faithful Maltese subjects."

On 29 October, Cassar requested that Gozo becomes a separate diocese. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gozo was eventually created on 22 September 1864, 65 years after Cassar's petition. During Cassar's rule of Gozo, he organized the administration, reopened the law courts and elected new jurists; and even opened a customs house.

When the French garrison in Valletta surrendered in September 1800, Malta became a British Protectorate. Cassar continued to rule Gozo independently until 20 August 1801, when the British Civil Commissioner, Charles Cameron, removed him from the position. Emmanuel Vitale, another leader of the Maltese insurrection, became Governor, Superintendent and the Health Director of Gozo, a post which he held until his death fourteen months later.

Saverio Cassar wanted Gozo to remain part of the kingdom of Sicily with the same neapolitan flag. He did not wanted full independence of his Gozo and/or the Maltese islands: this was the reason of his removal by the British. And all the "Italian maltese" (living in Gozo and/or Malta) wanted the same union to Sicily from Napoleon times until the unification of Italy in 1861: only later -mainly since the beginning of the XX century- these Italian maltese -who always considered Cassar one of their first "idealists"- started to promote the union of the Maltese islands to the Kingdom of Italy.

References

Saverio Cassar Wikipedia