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Hector Scerri, Joe Zammit Ciantar: The Holy Eucharist and the Hymn T’Adoriam Ostia Divina. Foundation for Theological Studies and the Faculty of Theology, The University of Malta. 2014, 96 pp.
The 24th International Eucharistic Congress that was held in Malta 101 years ago may not have left deep permanent marks on Maltese society. But one aspect of it did leave the islands and did quite unexpectedly manage to reach some of the farthest countries of the world.
The Eucharistic hymn T’Adoriam Ostia Divina – better known locally as Nadurawk ja Ħobż tas-Sema – written by Dun Karm and set to music by Mro Giuseppe Caruana, ended up being sung in faraway countries and the favourite Eucharistic hymn of a pope.
The importance of the Eucharist to the Christian is succinctly brought out in the foreword by Bishop Mario Grech to the booklet The Holy Eucharist and the Hymn T’Adoriam Ostia Divina. The book consists of two contributions, by Fr Hector Scerri, lecturer at the University of Malta and president of the Theological Commission and the Ecumenical Commission, Malta and Dr Joe Zammit Ciantar respectively. The booklet has the double purpose of explaining the nature of the mystery of the Eucharist as a means of sustenance for believers and also to commemorate the centenary of the hymn.
Fr Scerri’s theological paper investigates the inextricable relationship between the sacrament of the Eucharist and the way in which Christians put into practice their most important celebration. Indeed, the Eucharist has to be seen as the viaticum, the Christian food for our earthly journey, the heavenly bread which Dun Karm mentions in the Maltese translation of his hymn.
Indeed, the author affirms that believers are expected to translate Jesus’s symbolic gestures into moral and sanctifying gestures in various cultural contexts. The washing of the feet is an event of high theological significance to stimulate Christians to practise effectively their beliefs. This explains the choice of the book cover, which shows Christ washing the Apostles’ feet, but which could have been judged odd in a book dealing with the Eucharist.
As regards the hymn itself, Zammit Ciantar has been carrying out research about it and how it has spread to many countries in various different languages for over 20 years. The outcome of this research is presented in a very interesting study, which is the second part of the booklet and is bound to be appreciated by all collectors and students of Melitensia.
The hymn originated when Mro Caruana asked Dun Karm to write a few lines which he then could set to music for the approaching Congress celebrations. The simple melody and hymn, entitled Inno Eucaristico, must have had a great immediate appeal to not only the locals but also to several of the visiting dignitaries who took home copies and saw that it was sung at Eucharistic celebrations.
The bishop of Acireale, who had heard it being sung by the children who received Communion for the first time during one procession, remarked to Dun Karm that this must be how they sing in heaven. He asked for a copy of the hymn to take back home and other dignitaries could well have done the same.
By 1931 the hymn was being sung daily in Rome, but without acknowledgment either to the lyricist or the composer. Locally, Dun Karm was distressed by the Maltese translations that were being sung in various parishes and so decided to make his own official translation – Nadurawk, ja Ħobż tas-Sema.
In the process of its dissemination, the origin of the hymn was quite forgotten and in many countries it was assumed that it must have been some old traditional tune of unknown parentage.
The hymn even featured in Vittorio de Sica’s classic film Ladri di Bicicletta
Zammit Ciantar’s interest in the hymn arose quite accidentally when he heard it being sung in Naples in 1991. Since then, he has been indefatigably searching for different versions in various countries. He has been able to trace versions in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, and Romanian.
A personality who was touched by this hymn is no other than Pope Francis who, on hearing the hymn sung by the Laudate Pueri choir of Victoria last January outside his residence at Santa Marta, recalled that he had heard it when he received his first Holy Communion in the early 1940s in his parish in Buenos Aires.
The author has carried out quite an extensive research of the structure of the hymn and of its various reincarnations. Quite as extensive is his analysis of its literary and its religious aspects. He has also managed to unearth some interesting facts, such as that the hymn even featured in Vittorio de Sica’s classic film Ladri di Bicicletta, with the bells of the parish church of Cornalba in Bergamo province ringing out the tune at noon.
He also gives more information about the original celebrations, in the process making use of several attractive and rare contemporary mementoes, illustrations and photographs. He also gives an account of some details about how the centenary of the Congress was celebrated in the islands over the past year.
No doubt, further research will discover how this simple melody has managed to win its way into believers’ hearts in many other countries, not less in those places like Poland, Peru and even Asia and Africa, especially where the members of the MUSEUM and other lay and religious missionaries have established homes. Perhaps, the story of the hymn is only just beginning.