Hundreds of people packed St John of the Cross Parish Church at Ta' Xbiex this afternoon for the funeral of Gunner Matthew Psaila, who died on Monday following an AFM training exercise.
The coffin was carried into the church by AFM pall bearers while a firing party stood to attention and presented arms.
The coffin was draped in the Maltese flag. On top of it was the 19-year-old soldier's forage cap, belt and bayonet frog. The soldier's family walked behind the coffin into the silent church.
Once the coffin was laid before the altar - where Matthew Psaila had served as an altar boy - the pall bearers removed the Maltese flag and the parish priest of Ta' Xbiex, Fr Joseph Gerada, replaced it with a Bible.
The congregation was led by Acting President George Hyzler, the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat, Brig Carmel Vassallo, commander of the AFM, and senior officers of the other services. Among those present were soldiers from his unit - some of them wiping tears - and many young people, friends of Gnr Psaila.
In his homily, the parish priest recalled a conversation he had had with Matthew Psaila during which Matthew had asked him for a nice funeral when he died. The priest replied that he was likely to die first, to which Matthew replied that one never knew.
Matthew,Fr Gerada said, was a silent boy with a nice smile.
"In a world where everyone wants to have his say, he was the one who was ready to listen."
He was also a man who saw service in the army as a mission and a vocation to help others, and he had died while preparing himself for that purpose.
"The army should be proud to have had him in its ranks.
"God has picked him for his army, to protect us and his family."
Following the Mass the coffin was again carried out of the Church by AFM pall bearers, with the congregation applauding in the drizzle.
At Addolorata Cemetery, where Gnr Psaila was buried in the servicemen's graves, an AFM unit fired three salvoes in a final salute and a bugler sounded the last post.
The soldiers then individually placed flowers on the coffin and saluted their colleague.
MIGRANTS' ARRIVAL PREVENTS SOLDIERS FROM ATTENDING FUNERAL
An army spokesman confirmed that a number of soldiers who had planned to attend could not do so because of the arrival of a large number of migrants at Birżebbuġa this morning.
Gunner Psaila died in hospital after finding himself in difficulties in the water at Chadwick Lakes on Friday. He joined the army last March, fulfilling a life-long ambition.