Brazil

In fact, Fr. Gejt Xerri, after working as a missionary in India and, when she closed it, in Syria, ), in 1948 he went to Brazil to work with the monks of the Province of Bologna (Italy) in the State of Goias.  A few years later two other monks Fr. Isnard Farrugia and Fr. Dumink Ebejer (who in 1977 became Bishop of the new Diocese of Uniao da Vitoria) also went to Brazil. They wanted the Province to have its own mission.  

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It was in 1961 that the State of Paraná, in the south of Brazil, was chosen to establish the Vicarage of San Martín de Lima.  The monks began to serve in poor, priestless parishes such as those of  Borrazopolis and Faxinal in the Diocese of Londrina.  They were very large parishes - two to three times larger than Malta - and were very poor, with several communities scattered throughout the territory.  The monks realized at once that it was not enough to sanctify, confess, and administer the other sacraments. There was also a need to think about evangelization and the education of the children of the people, with the building of churches, pastoral centers and schools.  In 1967, the monks had to leave the parish of Borrazopolis, and instead, moved to another parish in Matinhos - a fishing place whose population was greatly increased in the summer by people from all over the state and from Brazil.  Other parishes that the monks took over were those in the towns of Curitiba, Ponta Grossa and Londrina. 

There were several Maltese monks who  over the course of fifty years they felt the missionary calling and offered the best time of their lives  at work in this world’s largest Catholic country.  In fact, there are about thirty cooperating monks and brothers  who spent  some time of their lives in this Mission.  There was also a time when the presence of the Maltese Dominicans began to attract young people who showed the desire to join them as they actually did.

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But since Brazilian Dominicans were also working in Brazil, in a Province for them, as well as Italians from the Province of Bologna, over time the need began to be felt, and it became more and more timely, for all Dominicans to unite in One province that was to be born from the existing entities.  In fact, in 1998 Bartolome de las Casas Province was born.

 

The last Maltese Dominicans to continue working in Brazil were P. Ġwann Xerri OP and E.T. Mons Walter D. Ebejer OP  that both died and were buried  there like the first Maltese Dominican who had ever gone to Brazil P. Gejt Xerri OP  Fr John died as a victim of Covid-19 on 31 May 2021 while Mons Ebejer died on 11 June 2021 at the age of 92.