A plaque to Bishop Caruana at the Upper Gardens in Valletta. Photo: Joe Demanuele

I do not wish to enter into the heated arguments mentioned in the Times of Malta report (August 29) regarding street naming in Żebbuġ but, for history’s sake, one should highlight certain historical distortions that have survived over the past 200 years as a result of intentionally bending the collective memory of this nation.

According to the report, Canon F. S. Caruana was described as “a French lackey”. Caruana sat on the Commission of Government of the first Maltese republic in June 1798 for only five to six weeks but, apparently realising his commitment with the French would not profit his cotton business, he started plotting against them by the end of July. By September, he was not only leading the peasants’ revolt as their ‘general’ against the blockaded French but did his utmost to bring British rule to Malta. He was later appointed Bishop of Malta, a deserved reward by the new colonising power for services rendered.

I admit that this is only a glance at Bishop Caruana’s exciting life but, unfortunately, no researched biography has yet been undertaken, a recent exception being the popular documented articles authored by Giovanni Bonello.

Previous appreciations of Bishop Caruana, particularly those that appeared late in the 19th century, were mostly written by either descendants or friends.

Curiously enough, while Caruana was described by some chroniclers as a type of hero in his strategic revolt against the French, no national memorial was ever erected in his memory; most probably Alexander Ball took all the honours with his Valletta majestic mausoleum in 1810. Contrastingly, and perhaps indicatively, Caruana’s lame appreciation came in the form of a plaque at the Upper Barrakka Gardens a full 100 years after his passing away.

Were his contemporaries aware of his opportunistic stances under different powers or is he a forgotten hero? Ironically enough, Frans Sammut, a dear missed friend of mine, defended Caruana in several interviews he gave me but I always got the impression that he was first and foremost defending another Żebbuġi.