Last Wednesday, in preparation for the Solemnity of the Assumption, the remains of the body of the Servant of God Dun Mikiel Attard were transported from the Cemetery of Our Lady of Sorrows in Nadur to the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu.
The Diocese of Gozo, in a statement, said that this followed the exhumation and necessary forensic tests.
Fr Mikiel Attard was a priest from the Diocese of Gozo. He died in 2004 after a long illness.
Fr. Mikiel was born in Nadur, Gozo, on the 1st of October 1933, the first of 12 siblings. He was the son of Coronato and Anna neè Tabone. His father used to work in Malta as a contractor and builder and he moved with his family to Hamrun, Fr. Mikiel spent his first 6 or 7 years living in Malta.
In 1940, after the second world war started, Coronato decided to return with his family to Nadur.
Fr. Mikiel was ordained at the Gozo Cathedral on April 12, 1959. He was very devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist and to our Lady of Ta’ Pinu and to her he offered all his pastoral work.
The white marble on the new tomb within Ta’ Pinu, which is on the floor of the right nave of the Basilica, on the left of the Altar dedicated to the Annunciation of the Lord, bears on it the signed name of Dun Mikiel together with the dates of his birth and death.
The Diocese explained that Rev. Mikiel Attard had great devotion and love for Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu and a special fondness for her Sanctuary, which he used to call an “oasis of peace,” and where he founded the ‘Gym Talb Madonna Ta’ Pinu,’ as well as dreaming of starting a male contemplative life experience.
It was with his encouragement that exactly 25 years ago, on the 14th of August 1997, the Vigil of the Assumption was held for the first time, which is still celebrated every year to this day on the Parvis of the Sanctuary as he wished it as an external manifestation of Marian devotion.
After his death on the 30th of July 2004, the remains of Don Mikiel they were buried in what is now the old Nadur Parish Cemetery, after the Funeral Mass which was conducted by the then Bishop of Gozo Nikol G. Cauchi in the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul on the 2nd of August.
Many people have visited and prayed at his grave during the last 18 years, “a testimony to the fame of sanctity that he enjoys among the Gozitans,” the Diocese said.
On the 1st of August 2012 at Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary, 10 years after his death, in a Solemn Mass presided by the then Bishop of Gozo Mgr Mario Grech, right after the Rite of Introduction, Mgr Salv Debrincat, Chancellor of the Bishop’s Curia, read the edict which announced to the Catholic community that the diocesan process of the Beatification Cause of the Servant of God Fr Mikiel Attard was officially opened.
The Diocese concluded by saying that “while the people of God are encouraged to continue praying for the glorification of Dun Mikiel even while visiting his grave in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu, any information about him or thanks due to his intercession should be referred to the Office of the Postulation of the Cause for Beatification within the Diocese of Gozo.
Photos by Betty Bugeja