A presentation by the librarian Revd Fr Joseph Attard
The Gozo Major Seminary Library, which recently has been named as Bibliotheca Seminarii SS. Cordis Iesu Gaudisiensis (B.S.G.), is a library with a long history. Regarding this, two questions came to my mind: how can the history of this library be documented? How can the memories of so many people that throughout the years came in touch with this library be expressed? Maybe there is no need to do so, even because it is a huge task but indeed its history spans over several generations of Gozitans. In November 2019 I was appointed as librarian to run this Gozitan cultural heritage, a culture patrimony which can easily affirm how precious it is to the diocese of Gozo, especially to all Gozitans and priests.
An unkown author stated that a “library lets you borrow the beauty and keep the knowledge”. This is indeed one of the many goals of a library: to comunicate beauty and knowledge in order to enlighten the person. Our seminary library is not an ordinary library, because at its heart there is a collection of philosophical and theological books, which makes of it a philosophical and theological library bringing the beauty of God nearer to our younger generation. This is the reason why this library is mainly consulted by priests and seminarians, which by no means diminish the importance it has for people in general.
In 1864 Gozo was created a diocese separte from the sister island of Malta. It was during this period, in 1866, that the Gozo Major Seminary opened its doors for seminarians with the arrival of the Jesuits, which where made by the first bishop of Gozo Mikiel Franġisk Buttiġieġ responsible for the formation of seminarians – those who wanted to become future priests of the newly created diocese. From this time onwards, it is known that a collection of philosphical and theological books started to be compiled at the Gozo Major Seminary. Eventually a premises was identified, nowadays on the fourth flour of the Sacred Heart Minor Seminary. During the period between 1972-2006 when Mgr Nikol Ġ. Cauchi was bishop of Gozo, the collection started drastically to be expanded.
In fact the library is nowadays organised and classified by two major classifications: the Universal Decimal Classification (U.D.C.), which is a classification used world wide, and another detailed classification in regards to the philosopichal a theological sections, that was created by the Jesuit Revd Fr Tony Sapienza. Apart from the philosophical and theological sections, the library has other interesting smaller sections, such as Christian Art and Arcehology, Liturgy, Sociology, Church History, Canon Law, Official Documents of the Church Fathers and Church Magisterium, and above all one can find a whole section dedicated to dictionaries, encyclopedias and periodicals. Apart from this, the library hosts an archive with collections of old books and documents, which are considered very interesting, with some being unique for the whole island of Gozo.
The Bibliotheca Seminarii SS. Cordis Iesu Gaudisiensis is today undergoing drastical changes not only in reorganising a proper premises, more modern where those who visit the library can consult books in a pleasant environment with improved services, but above all the collection of the library is undergoing a review to be updated and therefore to keep in touch with the realty of today.
In concluding, I would like to invite all those interested not only to come and visit our library and unique collections at the archive, but above all to come and read our books because as St. Jerome, patron of librarians, stated: “when we pray we speak to God; but when we read God speaks to us”.