17th Anniversary of the demise of Grand Master Fra Andrew Bertie
First Friday Mass of the month of February of this year coincided with the anniversary of the death of Fra Andrew Bertie, Grand Master of the Order from 1988 to 2008. Fra Bertie holds a special position in the hearts of the Maltese Association. Many members had the privilege of knowing him personally during the many years he lived in Malta.
Mass was celebrated for his repose by the Principal Chaplain of the Association, Mgr Brendan Gatt assisted by Mgr Paul Vella, at Our Lady of Victory Church in Valletta. It was attended by the President, Dr Michael Grech, members of the Council, Members, Volunteers and their families.
The mass was also offered for the repose of the soul of Dr Gege Vella.
NBS
.
Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie was the second Englishman to be elected to the post of Grand Master in the Order’s 900-year history. Born 15 May 1929, he was educated at Ampleforth College, Christ Church Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. After military service in the Scots Guards, he worked as a financial journalist in the City of London, before taking up the senior post in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) at Worth School, Sussex. Admitted to the Order in 1956, he took solemn religious vows in 1981 and served on the Sovereign Council (the government of the Order) for the following seven years before being elected Grand Master on 8th April 1988.
A man of quiet reflection and wide interests, although of a certain British reserve, Fra’ Andrew was much loved by all who worked with him on his many projects. He greatly enjoyed the company of the young, and his former students were often among his visitors to the Magistral Palace in Rome. He always much enjoyed meeting and talking with all those involved in the good works of the Order, many of whom he met on his travels around the world to visit the Order’s charitable activities and consult with the national associations involved. When possible, he spent his holidays at his home in Malta, where he was very involved in organising and teaching judo courses for children as well as tending his farm, whose four different varieties of oranges were a constant source of pride in good weather and anxiety in bad.
Fra Bertie has been named “Servant of God”when the Cause of his beatification was opened.
LORD, whose servant Fra Andrew Bertie, showed us, by his fidelity to Your example and teaching the path of holiness as the true measure of the Christian life – grant, we pray, that through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin venerated under the title of Queen of Mount Philermos, whom he so deeply loved and confidently invoked, that he may be exalted also on earth for Your greater glory, and that we may obtain by his intercession the grace we so ardently implore. Through our Lord Jesus Crist, Your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit God for ever and ever Amen.
