The Beginnings

In St. Ignatius'' time the bishop of Malta, Domnic Cubelles, asked Ignatius to send Jesuits to Malta so as to help reform the diocese and the ruling Hospitalier Order of St John (Knights of Malta), as well as to start a college. Ignatius saw the possibility of using Malta as a base to send Jesuits to Girba, near Tripoli. Given Malta''s geographic position and the proximity of the Maltese language to Arabic, Malta seemed to Ignatius an ideal stepping stone to train missionaries for the Muslim world. Fr Bobadillia was destined to carry out the diocesan apostolate in 1554, and other Jesuits to open the College. Due to quarrels between the Bishop and the Order, however, the plan did not materialise. In 1565 the newly elected Fr General, Francis Borgia, sent a group of Jesuits with the army that was put together to releave Malta from the Great Siege. It is not known if they actually landed, and none further is known on this second attempt.

Fr Carminata. The first known Jesuit to come to Malta was Fr Carminata, in 1577. Being a well known preacher, he was invited by the Grandmaster to give lenten sermons to the knights. In 1578, the newly appointed bishop of Malta, Thomas Gargallo, asked Fr Carminata, then provincial of Sicily, to send Jesuits to Malta to open a College. Carminata obliged by sending three: Fr