Gaetano Mannarino

Don Gaetano Mannarino (; 1733–1814) was a Maltese Roman Catholic priest who led an armed uprising against the Knights Hospitaller in September 1775. The rebellion was suppressed, and Mannarino was imprisoned for over two decades before being released during the French occupation of Malta in 1798.

Early life

Mannarino was born in Valletta in 1733 and was baptised at the parish church of St Paul's Shipwreck. (One source states that Mannarino was born on 29 August 1733 while another gives his birth date as 2 September 1733 and states that he was baptised on the same day; the baptism date is known from records of the parish church of St Paul's Shipwreck.) Mannarino became a critic of Ximénez and of the Hospitallers' rule over Malta, and on one occasion he was physically assaulted by a knight named Galan. These tensions eventually led to an armed uprising under Mannarino's leadership in 1775. On 8 September 1775 – the feast day of the Nativity of Mary and the anniversary of a 1565 siege – Mannarino led a group of rebels to Fort Saint Elmo in Valletta, where they gained access with the assistance of corporal Antonio Antonurso of the Magistral Regiment. The rebels successfully took control of the fort, while a separate group of rebels simultaneously took control of Saint James Cavalier at the opposite end of the city; by the morning of 9 September the rebels had lowered the Order's flags from the two fortresses and raised their own flags – either white and red standards or banners of Saint Paul – in their stead. Mannarino's rebels in St. Elmo fired a cannon shot and this was answered by another shot from the cavalier, alerting the city to the insurrection. The Hospitallers quickly retook the cavalier by force, At some point, Mannarino is said to have been imprisoned in Fort Manoel, where he was kept under close guard after an escape attempt. When Hospitaller rule in Malta ended with a French invasion on 12 June 1798, Mannarino was released by the French authorities and he was welcomed by Napoleon as a martyr of liberty.

Legacy

A tablet in Mannarino's memory was installed within the Birkirkara church on 1 November 1931. A main road in Birkirkara is also named after him.