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Fra Diegu was born Giacchino Bonanno in Valletta on
21st March 1831. His deeply religious parents
provided him with a sound primary education and
later on apprenticed him with a Merchants Street
draper. At the age of twenty-two he became a member
of the Tertiary Order of St. Francis, and four years
later he joined the Order of Friars Minor as a
lay-brother, taking the name of Diegu.
Because of his special assignment of scouring the
streets of Malta for alms in aid of his convent, Fra
Diegu became aware of the needs around him. In 1860,
following an incident in St. Julians, the brother
began to search out for dissolute girls, offering
him the shelter of a special reformatory home which
he set up at Cospicua. At this stage he also started
work among the many girl orphans who begged their
living in the streets.
Fra Diegu, as he became known, also found
time to expand his pastoral work by paying
regular visits to the Central Civil
Hospital, Floriana. In the meantime,
the number of girls had increased so
alarmingly that he had to |