Antonio Maria Buhagiar

Antonio Maria Buhagiar OFM Cap (born November 19, 1846 in Kefalonia as Spiridione Salvatore Constantino Buhagiar , † August 10, 1891 in Santo Domingo ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman of Maltese descent, papal diplomat and apostolic administrator of Malta .

Live and act

Origin and early years

He was born on the Greek island of Kefalonia as the son of the merchant Joseph Buhagiar from Ħaż-Żebbuġ and his wife Maria Concetta Attard, who came from Floriana . His baptismal name was Spiridione Salvatore Constantino Buhagiar , his secular name is also given as Spiridion-Salvatore-Costantino Buhadgiar . As a youth he moved to Malta and entered the Capuchin order . He spent his novitiate in St. Liberata's Friary in Kalkara . One of his biological brothers, Michael Buhagiar, became a diocesan priest .

Because of his excellent academic achievements, the Provincial Superior Giovanni Fedele da Gozo recommended him to the Minister General of the Capuchins for study outside of Malta. Antonio Maria Buhagiar mastered Maltese , Italian and Latin as well as Greek , Hebrew , French and Spanish .

Spiritual career

The ordination received Antonio Maria Buhagiar on 18 September in 1869 by Archbishop Gaetano Pace Forno OSA . The Minister General of the Capuchin Order, which because of the upheavals in Rome at that time Malta was staying, gave him in June 1871 with the title summa cum laude the sermon permission . An offered to him by the Minister General editing in philosophy refused Buhagiar since he joined the pastoral wanted to dedicate activities. So he became chaplain for the newly opened Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery in Paola .

Antonio Maria Buhagiar left Malta on May 2, 1872 and traveled to Tunis, where he had been called as an Apostolic Missionary by the Congregation De Propaganda Fide at the request of the Vicar Apostolic of Tunis , Fidèle Sutter OFM Cap , and worked primarily among the Maltese, who had settled in Sfax . He spent twelve years there and stayed there after being appointed auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Carthage in 1883 .

Antonio Maria Buhagiar was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Tunis and Titular Bishop of Ruspae on August 12, 1884 . He was ordained bishop on August 31, 1884 in Tunis by the Archbishop of Algiers , Cardinal Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie ; Co-consecrators were Léon-Antoine-Augustin-Siméon Livinhac MAfr , Vicar Apostolic of Victoria-Nyanza , and Jean-Baptiste-Frézal Charbonnier MAfr, Vicar General of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers).

When the Bishop of Malta Carmelo Scicluna needed support because of illness and advancing age, Antonio Maria Buhagiar was on April 14, 1885 by Pope Leo XIII. Appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Malta. The British administration of Malta was surprised by the appointment of a Francophile bishop to the diocese of Malta, and the clergy of the diocese were also angry that a Maltese living abroad had been given preference over the local clergy in filling this important office. After Archbishop Scicluna died on July 12, 1888, Buhagiar was replaced in 1889 by the Bishop of Gozo Pietro Pace . On January 8, 1891, Antonio Maria Buhagiar was appointed Apostolic Delegate and Envoy Extraordinary to San Domingo , Haiti and Venezuela .

death

Six months after his arrival, Antonio Maria Buhagiar contracted yellow fever and died of the disease on August 10, 1891 at around 11 p.m. at the age of only 44, after the Archbishop of Santo Domingo , Fernando Antonio Arturo de Meriño y Ramírez , gave him the disease Had donated the sacraments of the death . He was buried in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo .

His biological brother Michael Buhagiar, who had accompanied him to Santo Domingo, also fell ill with yellow fever and died a few days after him.

literature

• Ambrose Macaulay: The Holy See, British Policy and the Plan of Campaign in Ireland, 1885-93 . Four Courts, Dublin 2002, ISBN 978-1-85182-628-5 , pp. 249 f .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Antonio Maria Buhagiar in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved October 20, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} entry on Spiridion-Salvatore-Costantino Buhadgiar on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on October 20, 2019.