[3] His activism earned him praise and in 1952, Pope Pius XII nominated him as a papal privy chamberlain and awarded the rank of Monsignor.

[4] These seemed to have been the basis for the 5 Luminous Mysteries promoted by Saint John Paul II in 2002 in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

[11] In 1897, while walking along with the Maglio Gardens in Floriana, Ġorġ Preca met one of his professors, Father Ercole Mompalao, who encouraged his religious vocation.

In his studies he began to write a rule in Latin for use in a planned religious movement for permanent deacons that he wished to establish but this desire subsided over time.

[11] In February 1907 he arranged a spiritual conference at the Ta' Nuzzo church; later meetings were held at 6 Fra Diegu Street.

[14] Senior clergy began to suspect that the rapid growth and popularity of Preca's movement could have heretical implications, especially as it involved so many of the low skilled and uneducated.

This cleared the movement of any negative behaviour and paved the way in due course for ecclesiastical recognition of the Society of Christian Doctrine on 12 April 1932.

It was at the height of the crisis that Preca claimed to have received a powerful religious experience in 1910 one morning as he passed the Marsa Cross – triggered by a child aged twelve pushing a cart with a bag of manure who had shouted: "Lend me a hand!".

Preca helped him and as he placed his hands on the cart he felt profound spiritual calmness and understood that he had experienced a revelation as the boy symbolized Christ and the wagon, the work of evangelizing.

[12] Preca became a Third Order Carmelite after being admitted on 21 July 1918, and made his profession on 26 September 1919 with the new religious name of "Franco".

[15][a] These were: The cause towards canonization by the Catholic Church formally opened on 13 March 1975 under Pope Paul VI when Preca was given the title "Servant of God" after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued its official "nihil obstat".

Mikiel Gonzi (the Archbishop of Malta) subsequently issued the decree on 24 June 1975 that would pave the path for a full diocesan investigation to begin.

[10] The attributed miracle was a healing in February 1964 of Charles Zammit Endrich, who suffered from a detached retina in his left eye.

The baby's parents were said to have put a glove used during Preca's exhumation on the infant; the child recovered to the point the doctors said an operation was not needed at all.

[18] A statue of Preca was unveiled at the church of Saint Cajetan parish in Ħamrun, Malta, during a solemn Mass that Archbishop Paul Cremona presided over on 17 December 2009.