Salvino Darmanin was born in Senglea on October 31, 1919, son of Carmelo and Victoria née Rope. He had seven other siblings of whom three became Sisters of Charity.

On November 5, 1934, at the age of 15, he joined the Society of Jesus. After having completed his secondary studies at the Episcopal Seminary in Floriana, Darmanin started his novitiate with the Jesuits in Sicily. He studied humanities at Villa San Cataldo, Bagheria, Palermo, Sicily, where he lived with other students, including several Maltese colleagues.

In June 1940, Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis, and Fr Darmanin was caught in the maelstrom of events of the time. Being the holder of a Commonwealth passport, he was interned in northern Italy. However, the Italian authorities allowed him to proceed with his studies in philosophy at the Istituto Filosofico Aloisianum, in Gallarate, Varese.

Unfortunately he was taken ill with pleurisy and had to be hospitalised. Things became more complicated there as he subsequently contracted tubercolosis.

Following Italy’s surrender on September 3, 1943, Nazi forces occupied the north of the country. The enemy suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Allies. Consequently hospitals were evacuated, patients sent home and their place taken by injured enemy soldiers. The whole town of Arco was taken over and San Pancrazio Hospital occupied.

Darmanin was one of the patients convalescing there. On September 30, the Nazis discovered that the young Jesuit student had a Commonwealth passport, showing that he was a British subject. He was sent to Milan, and after being interrogated at several German offices he was informed that he was going to be detained as a civilian political internee.

Darmanin objected and protested about all this on the grounds that he was a member of a religious society. However he was ordered to march to San Vittore civil prison, Milan, escorted by two armed guards.

For a couple of weeks Darmanin was kept in a filthy and dimly lit cell, eight feet long by six feet wide. During this short period of solitary confinement he entrusted himself in the care of the Almighty, praying: “Our Father who is in Heaven has His own plans for me”.

Lunch at the prison consisted of a pot of vegetable soup and a piece of bread every day. Darmanin ate the soup, saving the slice of bread by soaking half of it in water to serve him for supper and consuming the other half for breakfast the following morning.

A few days later he was informed that he was due to be transferred to a transit camp with other British prisoners of war. After an unpleasant journey they arrived at Mantova. On October 16, all the POWs were searched, pockets were turned inside out and shoes examined. Nearly all his personal belongings were confiscated and he was ordered to give up all his money – 500 lire; he was told it would be donated to a charitable institute.

The POWs were then ordered to walk to the railway station. As they did so, a few of them at the front started singing Show Me the Way to Go Home while the others at the rear whistled It’s a Long Way to Tipperary. At the station, some German soldiers took photographs of Darmanin as he was wearing a cassock. This made him feel uneasy.

The three-day trip to Muhlberg in train-towed cattle trucks was very uncomfortable; nevertheless Italian women generously threw food to the prisoners of war at various train station stops. They were well accustomed to the unceasing convoys of trains loaded with POWs heading for Germany.

Groups of women could be seen at different stations with baskets of potatoes, eggs and casks of milk or wine to hand out to the POWs. Quite often the latter were deeply moved by the ladies’ touching generosity. On these occasions Darmanin’s religious habit became unexpectedly magnetic and he became very popular with the rest of his fellow prisoners.

On the last night of the journey, as the train was fast approaching the Italo-Austrian border, 20 prisoners managed to escape. Two of them were caught because they were slightly injured as they jumped off when the train happened to pass by a guarded level crossing. At the German border the Nazi officer subsequently ordered the guards to take the POWs’ belts, trousers and shoes to deter them from escaping.

Darmanin’s religious habit became unexpectedly magnetic and he became very popular with the rest of his fellow prisoners

Eventually the POWs disembarked at Moosberg on October 19, and placed in Stalag VII-A, about 20 miles north of Munich. This was one of the largest and oldest POW camps in Germany, holding 30,000 prisoners. The huts were overcrowded but warm. The Red Cross had supplied them with three-decker beds, blankets and parcels.

Initially the POWs thought that Darmanin was an enemy spy disguised in clerical robes. However, they soon realised that he was a British subject and that his intentions were genuine. In fact, they then started to share their belongings with Darmanin, giving him soap and blades so that he could finally have a shave.

On November 3, a Nazi soldier ridiculed Darmanin by ordering him to strip in front of the other POWs.

On November 4, Darmanin, together with 2,400 British POWs travelling in cattle trucks, arrived at Altengrabow (ancient graves), Stalag XI-A, situated about 28 miles northeast of Madgeburg and 50 miles southwest of Berlin.

In the meantime, Darmanin’s family in Malta were extremely worried as they had had no news about him. But fortune smiled on them when the rector Fr Guiseppe Delia, SJ, informed them that Darmanin was being detained in a POW camp.

Conditions were miserable here. Each hut was fitted with three-tier beds, better described as shelves, and housed 200 men. Each prisoner had a bed six feet long by 16 inches wide (1.83m x 41cm) and a place for personal belongings. Allowing each prisoner three minutes to wash his face and hands, 600 men required two-and-a-half hours to get washed.

Dinner was served in the open and 800 men took 90 minutes to be served a ladleful of carrot or turnip soup. They then had to queue up for dry food consisting of six ounces (about 180g) of bread, a spoonful of jam and a small piece of sausage or margarine or honey. Everybody turned up for this meagrely ration even in atrocious weather conditions. Ersatz tea was served at 6.30am and 4pm. This was mainly used for shaving as hot water was not provided.

Christmas Day was a monotonous normal day, but Darmanin had dinner with a French chaplain, Abbe’ Courbon, and attended midnight Mass in hospital. On New Year’s Day, everybody looked forward to a quick final victory for the Allies.

On January 19, 1944, some POWs, including Darmanin, were sent to Elsterhorst Reserve Lazarett 742 Stalag IV-A, approx­imately 25 miles southeast of Dresden and a POW hospital. German administration and their medical officers were not always careful in safeguarding the patients’ health but medical officers from the English and French Allied forces, who were prisoners themselves, made up for the lack of attention from the Germans.

Nevertheless one humane German doctor befriended Darmanin and when asked by the SS whether the prisoner was fit to remain alive, he reported in the affirmative, thereby saving his life, otherwise he would have been sent to a concentration camp to die because of his TB.

The Allied medical officers did their best to care for the POWs and to raise their morale. Darmanin acted as interpreter to various Italian and French POWs. At the POW camp, Darmanin met Abbe’ Cerisier a French chaplain, and was glad to hear Mass daily.

In the evening, together with a few French and English medical officers and POWs, they met in a small room to recite the rosary and other devotions. A little prayer book was specially prepared for Catholic POWs while the Young Men’s Christian Associations’ World Committee provided Whitsuntide message for Protestant POWs and other internees.

As Christmas was fast approaching all the prisoners felt that they should do something to celebrate the birth of Christ. Every bit of waste paper, cardboard, tinfoil and empty tins was hoarded to be used again. It was perhaps the first attempt to use, reuse and recycle.

Thin cardboard was used to draw leaf shapes and coloured to look like holly. Tin foil was cut into many shapes to make decorations for the Christmas tree. Patients helped by folding coloured bandages to make streamers, while others helped by sewing costumes for the Christmas pantomime being rehearsed.

A special choir was formed to sing Christmas carols. Exactly 30 years before, during Christmas 1914, the same belligerents – British and German – ceased their fighting in the trenches to chant festive carols together. Unfortunately this time it was a one-sided affair sung only by the Allies. Nevertheless, on the morning of December 22, after the German doctor’s departure for the Christmas holiday, the wards were suddenly transformed into nicely decorated rooms. A huge Christmas tree stood in the centre of every hall.

On the December 24 at 6pm, typewritten programmes were distributed. A group of orderlies toured every ward, singing familiar carols. Later, Santa Claus in his traditional red costume, escorted by the senior British officer, a lieutenant colonel, the doctors and the priest, visited the wards, shaking hands with each patient, handing small gifts and encouraging all the prisoners that the next Christmas would be celebrated with their families. At 9pm, midnight Mass was held for the Catholics, which ended in less than an hour because of the curfew at 10pm.

On Christmas Day, everybody exchanged greetings in various languages, and a better than normal breakfast was served. The Swiss Red Cross had supplied various ingredients for the festive dinner, which was considered a great meal compared with the daily fare of carrot soup and a slice of bread.

On Boxing Day, a pantomime entitled Harem Scarem, written by a British officer, was performed, and every prisoner enjoyed it. Since there were no female actors, some inmates donned women’s clothes and were greeted by guffaws and wolf whistles from the audience during the performance. It was an overwhelming success, which made them temporarily forget their hostile and alien environment.

In January 1945, a repatriation scheme for several POWs was put into effect but Darmanin was purposely left out, probably because he was an asset to the Germans in helping communication between friend and foe alike. His knowledge of different languages made interpretation easier.

He impressed me with his kindness, gentleness and humility. For him, each and every student was an asset to the college

The next month the prisoners learnt that between February13 and 15, Dresden had been heavily attacked by 527 USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses during the day and by 722 British RAF Lancaster bombers at night. In a round-the-clock bombing campaign, they dropped 3,900 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs. It later transpired that in the resulting firestorm created, 25,000 inhabitants, including men, women and children, were killed. The heavy and cumbersome Allied bombers impressed Darmanin. Before the attack, some of the bombers’ crews dispersed silver foil to jam the enemy radar.

On February 17, with the advance of the Soviet armies from the east, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp and move westwards to reach Bautzen. The 240-kilometre journey took longer than usual, being constantly interrupted by continuous air raids. Besides, Allied fighter aircraft were shooting at any locomotive that stirred so the train had to stop intermittently at different stations. Heavily raided Chimnitz was reached, and then Hohenstein-Ernstadt.

On May 7, the guards were notified that Russian artillery was very close but they did not cherish the idea of falling into their hands. They preferred to surrender to the Americans instead. The POWs started marching westwards again. At 4am local villagers informed them that the Allies were not far away.

At 10am they saw the first US ambulance passing by. Ten minutes later they entered Allied territory and were freed in the nick of time. Shortly before his death, Adolf Hitler had given an order to the Jugend (German Youth) that every POW should be shot. The prisoners were greeted heartily by American officers, and given proper food and clothing.

In Brussels, Darmanin’s personal documents and health condition were carefully checked. The British consul there was contacted, and on May 19, he flew in a Lancaster to Croydon, near London. He was referred to Epsom Hospital for further examination and released a fortnight later.

On October 4, Darmanin was joyfully reunited with his family and gradually regained his health. After a year of teaching at St Aloysius’ College, he proceeded to the Jesuit College at Heythrop, Oxford, UK, to continue his studies in philosophy, and in September 1947 left to study theology at St Mary’s College, Kansas, the US.

Since his studies had been interrupted by the war, resulting in him being held captive for 20 months in occupied Europe, he was ordained a year earlier than usual and celebrated his first Mass in Detroit, attended by many Maltese there in June 1949. Darmanin spent a total of four years studying in the US and then returned to teach again at the college.

He served as rector between 1953 and1959. I met him for the first time in 1955 during my first year as a student at the college. He immediately impressed me with his kindness, gentleness and humility. For him, each and every student in his own way was an asset to the college. Since his mother was English his command of the language was impeccable.

He became superior of the Jesuit retreat house of Mount St Joseph, Mosta, from 1964 to 1968, and appointed college rector again between 1968 and 1972. A string of appointments followed. He was provincial of the Maltese Jesuit Community between 1972 and 1978. On December 31 of the latter year Pope John Paul II was introduced to Darmanin when he met the Jesuit community after a ceremony at Gesù church in Rome. Darmanin became superior of Dar Patri Manuel Magri near the University from 1979 to 1984 and of the novitiate at Loyola House, Naxxar, from 1984 to 1990. He met the Pope again at the Vatican Gardens in August 1985.

In 1994 Darmanin celebrated his 60th anniversary in religious life and in 1999, the 50th anniversary in priesthood. A year later Darmanin left St Aloysius’ College and went to Mount St Joseph retreat house. There he was greeted by his fellow Jesuits whom he had helped before in their studies during their novitiate in the Jesuits’ community.

Aged 81, he was advised to take it easy by the family doctor. On February 14, 2001, he was watching a football game on TV with his colleagues when he felt overtired so he retreated to his room. At midnight they heard Darmanin’s room bell ring and so they ran up to his room. There they found him suffering from chest pains and immediately called an ambulance which rushed him to St Luke’s Hospital.

For the next two days he was monitored in the CCU ward and visited by his family, relatives and friends. For this he was very pleased and thanked them for their great respect towards him.

A few days later he asked a fellow Jesuit to administer the last rites. Whenever he was asked whether he needed anything, he always answered that he felt thankful to the Lord for giving him such a remarkable life. Early on February 17, Darmanin went to meet the meet the Risen Lord following another severe heart attack a few hours before.

Darmanin may have passed away but he has left us a legacy of heroism that makes the Society of Jesus proud of and honoured by one of its sons. He was a sincere, honest and a true gentleman. Students who fell under his care and supervision felt safe and secure, and for this he was and will continue to be respected and revered by many.