Dun George Preca will be officially declared a saint in Rome today by Pope Benedict XVI.

Dun Gorg Preca was born in Valletta on the 12th February 1880, but spent most of his childhood in Hamrun.

After completing his studies at the Lyceum and the Archbishop’s Seminary, Dun Gorg was ordained a priest by Bishop Pietro Pace on the 22nd December 1906.

During the previous year, Dun Gorg had been meeting with a group of male youths in Hamrun to talk about Christ and the Gospel. This was the very beginning of the Society of Christian Doctrine, which took off between the 2nd February and the 7th March of 1907, when the group rented a room at number 6, Fra Diegu Street, Hamrun and held meetings on the premises.

In January of 1910 Dun Gorg started holding similar meetings for women. He insisted on his members being lay people with a total dedication to God in the apostolate of Catholic teaching.

This was the beginning of the Society of Christian Doctrine, known as the M.U.S.E.U.M. – “Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus” – “Master, if only the whole world would follow the Gospel teachings”.

The Maltese ecclesiastical authorities gave its seal of approval to the statute of the Society of Christian Doctrine in April of 1932. Dun Gorg spread the teachings both verbally and through written text.

Dun Gorg died at St Venera on the 26th July 1962. He was beatified during a ceremony on Maltese soil by the late Pope John Paul II on the 9th May 2001.