Marjanu Vella

Who is Marjanu Vella?

Marjanu Vella was a poet born in Tas-Sliema, Malta on the 14 December 1927. His primary education was taken at Stella Maris College, a private school, then for his secondary studies attended the Malta Lyceum. He obtained the Matriculation Certificate in Maltese and Italian. At the age of 18 he entered the Franciscan Order in Malta and eventually was ordained Priest in August 1952.

The first sign of his future career began when he was still a young student at the Lyceum in 1941. There he wrote his first poem. Fr. Marjanu wrote also prose and other poems which were published in "Lehen il-Malti". Other poems were published in an anthology edited by Professor Guze Aquilina. Between 1952-1964 he published eight biographies. Many of them had their second print.

In 1958 he published his first book of poems entitled "Gizimin ahmar". This served as a textbook for state and private schools. In 1969 followed his second publication of poems called "Dghajjes tal-karti". His poetic career continued in 1975 by the publication of a series of poems named "Hitan tas-sejjieh" which merited him the Rotmans 1975 Prize and was chosen as the test book for the Matriculation exam.