I refer to the book review by Fr Geoffrey Attard (‘Augustinian heritage in Gozo’, November 21).

It contains mistakes about the arrival of the Augustinians in the Maltese islands and I write so these will not be repeated by quoting them.

Fr Attard wrote that the Augustinians arrived in Malta in 413 and in Gozo before 1453. It is known that the Augustinians arrived at the end of the fifth century. However, we cannot say whether they were first either at Mellieħa or Ta’ Gajdoru, Ramla. This can be proved by old Maltese and foreign historians.

According to an inscription at the Mellieħa sanctuary, in 1409 the Augustinians were already in Mellieħa. They left and went to Mdina together with the faithful because they were attacked by the Barbarians in 1414.

In Gozo, the Augustinians were at Ta’ Gajdoru, which means ‘of joy’. According to Can. De Soldanis’s Gozo Antico e Moderno, pp78-79, they arrived in Gozo in 493.

A University of Milan professor (Caganano) had said that when he visited Ta’ Gajdoru, he found the foundations of a fifth century structure that belonged to the Augustinians.