| Anastastio Cuschieri | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 27, 1872 Valletta, Malta |
| Died | July 25, 1962 Valletta, Malta |
| Occupation | Philosophy |
Anastastio Cuschieri (1872–1962) was a Maltese poet, politician, and minor philosopher. He held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Malta (1901–39). In philosophy he was mostly interested in ethics.[1]
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Cuschieri was born at Valletta, Malta, on January 27, 1876. He joined the Carmelite Order on April 25, 1891, at 19 years of age. That same year he began pursuing his institutional studies in philosophy and theology at the University of Malta. He made his religious profession on August 28, 1892. On completion of his university courses in 1898, Cuschieri was ordained a priest, and sent sent to Rome, Italy, to pursue studies in philosophy and theology at the Jesuits’ Gregorian Univeristy. In 1901 he became a Doctor of Philosophy and a Doctor of Theology.
On his return to Malta in 1901, Cuschieri was immediately appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Malta. Here just a year later, in 1902, he was elevated to the Chair of Philosophy, an office he occupied for thirty years. During this time, while busy teaching philosophy at the university, as a gifted orator he was frequently called upon to address various gatherings, and he was particularly popular to deliver religious orations. Twice was he chosen as a provincial superior of the Maltese Carmelites (1906–10; 1913–16).
Culturally, Cuschieri was utterly in love with the Italian language and the Latin culture. For many years he was one of the examiners of the Italian language and Italian literature. Many of his earliest poems were in Italian, and continued to write refined Italian poems all his life. A collection of these appeared in Oreste Tencajoli’s Poeti Maltesi d’Oggi (Rome, 1932). Nevertheless, Cuschieri also wrote perceptive poems in the Maltese language, especially from 1909 onwards (after being heartily encourage by Napoleon Tagliaferro). These he published in various cultural and religious periodicals. Due to his beautiful poems lauding the Maltese language, he became known as il-poeta tal-kelma Maltija (the poet of the Maltese idiom). Nonetheless, in religious circles he also became known as il-poeta tal-Madonna (the poet of the Blessed Virgin).
Cuschieri was also engaged in party politics. His early commitments were characterised by his love of the Latin culture, and, together with others, decided that Malta’s own culture should be defined in Latin, rather than in Anglo-Saxon, terms. This pitched him against the Protestant British colonial government of Malta. Nonetheless, his political commitment had a pronounced social edge. In 1921, when his political activity became more manifest, he was encouraged by a visit to Malta made by the Jesuit Charles Plater to accept an invitation by the Unione Cattolica San Giuseppe (St. Joseph Catholic Workers’ Union) to become the first Director of a Study Club which had the intention of educating workers. This society was domesticated by the Catholic Church to keep workers away from socialist teachings and action. This was in harmony with Cuschieri’s conservative politics.
After 1921 Cuschieri’s political engagements continued to grow gradually. The rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy in 1922 made him, and many others in Malta, look to fascism with increasing fascination and appeal. Like many other Neo-Thomists, Cuschieri saw great congruence between the Scholastics’ philosophical position and the Italian philosophy of fascism. By time, Cuschieri became a overt and avowed Fascist, and this was recognised both in Malta and in Italy. In 1932, Cuschieri was elected to parliament on behalf of the Fascist Nationalist Party as a representative of university graduates. At the beginning of World War II, in 1939, however, he was removed from the Chair of Philosophy, and kept him under house arrest for the duration of hostilities.
Cuschieri was an accomplished adherent of Scholasticism of the Aristotelico-Thomist type. Throughout his life, by training and by vocation, he was always part of the orthodox branch of this school. Though he was versed in the writings and doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, he never harboured or cultivated a thoroughly speculative mind, even if he seems to have been quite capable of subtleties and abstruse distinctions. Nonetheless, his inclination tended more to the applicability of Thomistic and Scholastic principles, especially to cater for his audiences in the pastoral fields.
In his own way, even ideologically, Cuschieri was somehow part of the Neo-Thomistic movement that grew after the wake of Pope Leo XIII’s pontificate, who gave great impetus, mainly for political reasons, to the movement. All of this, however, ended with World War II, up till which Thomist Scholastics carried on a sort of love-affair with fascism, and this suited Cuschieri very well.
After the fall of fascism and the end of the war, Cuschieri proceeded with his pastoral and academic. Throughout his life he loved sports, especially football. Nevertheless, when he grew older, he preferred to play billiards, especially at the Civil Service Sports Club of which he was a member. Alternatively, he cherished frequenting friends, especially members of the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese Language), and discussing current affairs, literature and philosophy.
On August 15, 1959, Cuschieri suffered a grave setback in his health. He had become bed-bound at the Carmelite convent at Valletta, and gradually grew paralised. His ailment and sufferings continued for three years. On July 17, 1962, he was administered the last rites, and eight days later, on July 25, 1962, he gave up the spirit.
Excluding his poetry (which does not interest us here), Cuschieri otherwise published very little in his lifetime. Nevertheless, a large number of manuscripts still exist. These were kept in his personal possession, and later passed on into the archive of the Carmelites at Valletta. Most of them were typed by Cuschieri himself, and sometimes annotated in his own hand. All are in Italian. The writings which contain philosophical content (that is, excluding the purely religious or devotional essays) are, namely, the following: