Note 16 — The Spanish Friars, After 1898

Monsignor Ambrogio Agius, born on September 17, 1856, of a distinguished Maltese family, entered on his novitiate at the Benedictine Monastery of Ramsgate, England, on September 8, 1871. Having finished his studies of philosophy and theology in Rome, he was ordained as priest on October 16, 1881, in the Cathedral of Santo Scolastico at Subiaco. He then returned to England, but in 1895 he was called to Rome, where for nine years he held several ecclesiastical offices. His ability was observed by Pope Leo XIII., and by his successor Pius X., who raised Ambrogio Agius to the dignity of titular Archbishop of Palmyra and appointed him Apostolic Delegate to the Philippine Islands in the year 1904, in succession to the late Monsignor Giovanni Guidi.