Fabian Mangion, Senglea, writes:
I will take this special moment to turn my thoughts to Fr Victor Xuereb, SJ, who, in possession of a great and wise mind, generously applied to the service of others, he was, in the words of so many who knew him, a great and gentle man.
The second son of Joseph and Angela née Gatt, Victor was born at Naxxar in 1930. He was educated at the Naxxar Primary School and at the Seminary, Floriana. In 1949 he joined the Society of Jesus. After a two-year novitiate, he spent two years at the Juniorate of Loyola House, Naxxar, studying Latin and Greek. Then, Fr Joseph Delia, SJ, Provincial, sent him to study at Heythrop College, Oxford, from where he graduated Phil.Lic. (1956). Between 1956 and 1958 he was in Malta teaching English at St Aloysius College, also with the responsibility of Prefect of Boarders.
In 1958, Fr Anthony Savona, SJ, Provincial, sent him to Oxford University (Greyfriars Hall), from where he graduated MA (Oxon.) in Latin, Greek, and philosophy (1961) and proceeded to Weston College, Boston, Massachusetts in the US, from where he graduated SThLic (1965).
Xuereb was ordained priest on June 13, 1964 in Boston by Cardinal Richard James Cushing, Auxiliary Bishop of Boston. In 1967 he made the solemn profession within the Jesuit Order.
Fr Victor was member of the faculty board of Gonzaga University, Washington where he lectured in Latin, Greek and theology (1965-1968). During the Vietnam War, he served as chaplain at the American Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane.
In 1968 he was asked to return to Malta and appointed superior of the Juniors at Loyola House and for many years taught philosophy and divinity at St Aloysius College’s Sixth Form. He lectured in Scripture at the Gozo Seminary and in philosophy at the Major Seminary, Malta, and at the Institute of Religious Studies. He also lectured at the Classics department, University of Malta and between 1980-1982 he taught at St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill, London.
Fr Victor was assistant spiritual director at the Seminary and an assiduous member of the Akkademja tal-Malti.
After serving as superior of the Sarria Community of Floriana, Fr Xuereb was asked to serve as superior of St Philip’s Rectory in Senglea. This he did for three terms (1978-1979, 1982-1988 and 1993-1999).
During these 16 years he was highly appreciated for his goodness and extraordinary activity inside the community and outside Senglea. With him, the house parlour was regularly pretty occupied. He heard confessions in some convents as far away from each other as Tarxien, Sliema and Rabat and his name was very often put down for baptisms, marriages and engagements.
He led a group of Rinascita Cristiana and was involved in the Neo-Catechumenal Movement. Between 1995-1996 he formed part of the executive committee which organised the unforgettable celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary from the solemn crowning of Senglea’s statue of the Nativity of Our Lady.
Fr Victor was extremely admired for his physical strength and this especially when, together with a number of volunteers, he undertook the tough job of repairing the exterior walls, dome and belfry of the Church of Our Lady of Porto Salvo in Senglea, which had been badly eroded by the salty air of the harbour. Fr Superior went up and down scaffoldings and worked manually in this courageous magnum opus, which entailed the chipping off of the damaged layer of the stone and subsequently plastering the whole façade.
In 1986, he set out to clean the old library set up by the Oratorian Fathers who dwelt in the residence between 1662 and 1928. There, various manuscripts came to life and to light when the lamp of interest, burning bright, was thrown upon them by Fr Victor who went deeper and deeper into the life of the Oratorians. Worth mentioning here is the discovery of three volumes of Memorie Diverse penned by the Senglea-born Provost Francesco Saverio Baldacchino (1774-1860), an early writer of prose and poetry in Maltese.
In 1991 Fr Victor was awarded the prize Città di Valletta for literature and in 2009 he was bestowed with the Ġieħ in-Naxxar title.
Among other publications, Fr Victor translated to Maltese and published Homer’s The Odyssey (1990) and The Iliad (1999), Vergil’s Eneide (2006) and Plato’s The Republic (2008). In 2003 he printed L-Għanja tar-Rebħa, the story of the last world war in poetry form. With all the relevant details, it makes you feel the pain, the sorrow, the hunger, the fright and all the ordeal endured by those who lived then.
For these past years, Fr Victor formed part of the community of Loyola House. Suffering his ill-health in silence, his spirit did not bend. Since a cure was not to be, he faced his pain with courage, until the very end. God saw him getting tired. He wrapped him in his loving arms and whispered ‘Come with me.’ Aged 86, after being a Jesuit for 68 years and a priest for 53, God took him to his loving home on August 26, 2017.
A golden heart stopped beating, hard-working hands now rest. Thank you Fr Victor, for the gift of you!