A new publication with the text of the first three books of the Confessions of Saint Augustins was launched during an enjoyable evening held at The Santa Rita Priory Saint Julians on April 21. The Publication brings to light once again a wonderful Maltese translation of the first three books of the Confessions of Saint Augustine by fr. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Karmenu Vassallo. These translations had actually appeared for the first time in the Augustinian journal “Santa Rita” between the year 1956 and 1963. In this Publication, the Editors Mr. Ivan Said and Rev. Dr. Jonathan Farrugia are presenting these texts together for the first time, adding to them a study on the same Confessions of Saint Augustine and on the translators themselves. It was actually their friendship, and the admiration they both had for Saint Augustine, which years ago led Professor fr. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Poet Karmenu Vassallo to collaborate together on the translation and notes for the Confessions. Unfortunately this work had only reached the third book of the Confessions.
As the Prior Provincial wrote in a short message in the publication, this book “should serve both to provoke the desire and love for the texts of Saint Augustine and particularly the Confessions, but also to shed light on the two Maltese scholars P. Ugolin Gatt O.S.A. and Karmenu Vassallo who made a valuable contribution in their respective fields.” Special thanks to Mr. Ivan Said who initially thought of this project and to rev. Dr. Jonathan Farrugia, Head of the Department of Patrology in the Faculty of Theology, who collaborated with him so that today we can have this text in our hands. This text, adds up to the series of studies and texts of Saint Augustine published by the Maltese Augustinian Province in the Maltese language.