Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born in Valletta on the island of Malta to a noble family, Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata received his education in Rome at the Collegio Clementino and the La Sapienza University, earning a doctorate in utroque iure in 1785. Appointed canon coadjutor of the canonry of Għar Barca in his native Malta in his early years, a few days following his graduation he was named referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Justice and of Grace in Rome. Named Governor of Narni on August 8, 1786, he remained there until 1790, when he was transferred to Città di Castello on August 13 that year and once more to Fano on March 7, 1794. Granted the "Crucem Aureaum Devotionis by Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan of the Order of Malta" in December 12, 1786, he was named apostolic delegate in Camerino in 1800 and apostolic delegate in Marche in June of the following year. Ordained priest in 1802, in September that year he was elected archbishop of the titular see of Berito, receiving his episcopal consecration at the church of Ss. Domenico e Sisto in Rome on December 21, 1802. Appointed secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in 1815, Pope Pius VII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 8, 1816, but held his name in pectore until the consistory of April 6, 1818, becoming thus the first Maltese to be elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals and remaining the sole member up to nearly two hundred years later, until February 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI elevated Maltese born Augustinian friar Prospero Grech to the cardinalate. Receiving the title of Santa Pudenziana a month later, Sceberras Testaferrata had been in the meantime appointed bishop of the diocese of Senigallia on April 6. He ended his days in this port town on the Adriatic coast and was laid to rest in the local cathedral. A beautiful marble and bronze monument was erected in his memory at the cathedral of Mdina in his native Malta in 1889.