St Peter’s Monastery in Mdina  has just published  Adeodata Pisani, a mystic nun in Mdina, written by the late Fr Peter Serracino Inglott.

I had known Fr Peter since a very tender age. I used to meet him every day (he was already a priest) on my way to the Immaculate Conception high school in Tarxien. Every day he used to stop to buy the newspaper from a shop in our street at my Tarxien home town. He used to stop and chat with me.

In 1991, I entered the cloister where Blessed Maria Adeodata, an ancestor of mine on the noble side of my father, lived and died. In 1998, I was elected abbess.

Fr Peter used to come often to our monastery. When we used to speak about the saint, his face and his eyes used to shine. I asked him to write a book about our blessed nun, then venerable, and an oratorju.

I remember many years ago he had sent me a manuscript he had written and to Mgr Carmelo Zammit, Bishop of Gibraltar, then coordinator for the cause of beatification of Sr Maria Adeodata Pisani. I remember I had spent all night reading it and having cried a lot. You have to know the saint to understand the contents of the book.

I have spent years asking what happened to the script but nobody seemed to know

I remember having chased Fr Peter so we publish the book about her, but he was all the time adding or making changes to the book. Unfortunately then he got sick and passed away.

I have spent years asking what happened to the script but nobody seemed to know.

Then one day last year I received a message from Petra Caruana Dingli. She asked me if I knew anything about the script Fr Peter had written. I told her I had been asking about the script for years and she told me she had a copy.

I asked for her help and said that, if it was God’s will, I wished to publish it on September 15, being the 25th anniversary of my monastic profession. That is what happened. Dr Louis Galea helped out to make the necessary arrangements.

Caruana Dingli was fantastic. She worked hard, with much love and dedication and without any personal interest. She worked on the editing of the book and Daniel Cilia took shots of the monastery. I thank them for all the hard work and for making my wish come true.

The book was launched as planned. The blessing and the launching was done by the Bishop of Gibraltar with speeches by Mgr Hector Scerri and Dr Galea.

The book is only being sold from the monastery. 

Anyone who comes to buy the book on Sundays between 3 and 5pm will also have the opportunity to visit Maria Adeodata’s cell and say a prayer.

Sr Maria Adeodata Testaferrata de Noto is abbess of St Peter’s Monastery, Mdina.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece