Mauro Caruana

Sir Maurus Caruana, O.S.B., K.G.C., K.B.E. (16 November 1867 – 17 December 1943), was a Maltese Benedictine monk who served as the Bishop of Malta and the Titular Archbishop of Rhodes.

Early life

He was born Luigi Carlo Giovanni Giuseppe Publio Caruana in Floriana, in what was then the Crown Colony of Malta, part of the British Empire. He was the youngest of the three sons of Enrico Caruana, assistant secretary to the Admiral Superintendent of the Malta Dockyards, and Elizabetta Bonavia. His older brothers went on to become a London banker and the Judge-Advocate General of the British Raj in India.

Caruana's mother died on 25 January 1869, when Luigi was still in his infancy, and he was raised by his father. In 1876, at the age of nine, he was admitted to the minor seminary of the Diocese of Gozo, and a year later he pursued his studies at St. Ignatius College in St. Julian's, administered by the Jesuit Fathers. Wishing to become a Benedictine monk, in 1882 he was enrolled in the school operated by the monks of Fort Augustus Abbey in Scotland, where he continued his studies. The day was of significance, as it is celebrated in Malta as the Feast of St. Paul's shipwreck there and by Benedictines as the Feast of St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict. He was also honored with being appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

The population of Malta received its new bishop with huge enthusiasm and he received a large donation from the public to commemorate the occasion, which he promptly turned to purchasing bread for the poor and for the upkeep of the seminary of the diocese. He became the first Maltese to be created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, shortly after the Order had been established by King George V.

On 29 March 1928 Monsignor Caruana was granted the personal title of archbishop by Pope Pius XI, as the Titular See of Rhodes, which the Bishops of Malta had held concurrently since 1797, had been restored as a functioning diocese.

Death Caruana died during World War II, after he had led the island through the Siege of Malta by the Nazi Luftwaffe, and Italian Air Force. He is buried in St Gregory, The Great Parish Church in Sliema, Malta.