Florida Catholic | The Priest & The Saint

Florida priest grew up in the presence of a saint

DEBRA TOMASELLI | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 10.26.07

Father Frank Zammit, retired priest of the Diocese of Orlando, talks to students during the children’s Mass, Oct. 17, about St. George Preca, during the children’s Mass at St. Peter’s Church in DeLand. Father Zammit attributes his vocation as a priest to a conversation he had with Father George Preca when he was a dock worker in Malta.

Father Frank Zammit, retired priest of the Diocese of Orlando, talks to students Oct. 17, about St. George Preca, during the children’s Mass at St. Peter’s Church in DeLand. Father Zammit attributes his vocation as a priest to a conversation he had with Father George Preca when he was a dock worker in Malta.
MARY ST. PIERRE | FC

DELAND | Father Francis Xavier Zammit, a semiretired priest who serves at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Ormond Beach and St. Peter’s here, once sought advice from a priest destined for sainthood. Even then, he knew he was seeking wise counsel.

St. George Preca (1880-1962), canonized June 3, 2007, formed the Society of Christian Doctrine in 1907, a group of lay catechists. A humble Maltese priest devoted to the Blessed Mother, it is reported that he developed the mysteries of light in 1957. Pope John Paul II officially added them to the rosary in October 2002.

“Everybody in Malta knew him,” said Father Zammit, a native of Malta who grew up listening to Father Preca preach from town squares and dockyard platforms. “He would come and give talks and thousands of people would come to listen. There was no church big enough to hold the crowds.”

As a teen, Father Zammit struggled between working in the dockyards and a persistent longing to enter seminary, so he sought advice from the future saint. Father Preca’s counsel was simple and direct: “You go to (the) dockyard now,” he said. “If God wants you to be a priest, he’ll call you out of the dockyard.”

Father Zammit worked in the shipyard six years before entering seminary. Forty-one years later, he’s still a priest.

Father Zammit said everybody in Malta perceived the holiness of “Dun Gorg,” as they affectionately called him. “There was something about the conviction in his eyes and the way he talked,” said Father Zammit. “His face would light up when he talked about God. He trusted in the Lord.

“We made him a saint before he died,” Father Zammit added.

Bert Ghezzi, author of several books on saints, including his latest, “The Heart of a Saint: 10 Ways to Draw Closer to God,” isn’t surprised.

“Saints don’t just drop out of the sky,” said Ghezzi, a member of St. Mary Magdalen in Altamonte Springs. “We all know people who are saints. Look around. Many people are living holy lives.”

Father Zammit reflected on his life with St. Preca.

“You go back to what you learned and the things he used to tell us about: sacrifice and devotion to the Blessed Mother,” Father Zammit said. “He (St. Preca) just lived a normal life — that’s how we knew him.”

Florida priest grew up in the presence of a saint

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