Born in Sliema, Malta, Bonnici entered the local St. Patrick's School in 1905. Joining the Salesian Brothers five years later, he started his novitiate year at San Benigno Canavese in Italy. Teaching music and tailoring in Northern Italy, he made his solemn profession in 1912. In 1914 he was posted to Palermo and in 1921 to Catania, in the latter year he earned a diploma in tailoring from Milan.
Aged 31, Bonnici was sent to Shanghai in China to carry out missionary work. Founding the first Salesian house in Shanghai along with his confreres, he worked there as an instructor in the tailoring shop until 1927. He then spent some time at St. Louis School in Hong Kong which had been entrusted to the Salesian Society. Besides being in charge of the shop, Bonnici was also bandmaster, contributing thus considerably to have the newly-arrived Salesians better known among the locals.
A pious, hard-working, and obedient confrere, Brother Aloysius later on accepted the responsibility of managing the printing shop of the school.
Following the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese, Bonnici was interned at Stanley until the end of the conflict, in spite of efforts made by the superiors through the International Red Cross to have him released. During the period spent at the concentration camp, he found work as a tailor and shared with his confreres the little money he was able to make. Returning to his native Malta following the Second World War, in 1957 he was diagnosed with brain tumor, to which he eventually succumbed in London.
Aged 31, Bonnici was sent to Shanghai in China to carry out missionary work. Founding the first Salesian house in Shanghai along with his confreres, he worked there as an instructor in the tailoring shop until 1927. He then spent some time at St. Louis School in Hong Kong which had been entrusted to the Salesian Society. Besides being in charge of the shop, Bonnici was also bandmaster, contributing thus considerably to have the newly-arrived Salesians better known among the locals.
A pious, hard-working, and obedient confrere, Brother Aloysius later on accepted the responsibility of managing the printing shop of the school.
Following the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese, Bonnici was interned at Stanley until the end of the conflict, in spite of efforts made by the superiors through the International Red Cross to have him released. During the period spent at the concentration camp, he found work as a tailor and shared with his confreres the little money he was able to make. Returning to his native Malta following the Second World War, in 1957 he was diagnosed with brain tumor, to which he eventually succumbed in London.
Born in Sliema, Malta, Bonnici entered the local St. Patrick's School in 1905. Joining the Salesian Brothers five years later, he started his novitiate year at San Benigno Canavese in Italy. Teaching music and tailoring in Northern Italy, he made his solemn profession in 1912. In 1914 he was posted to Palermo and in 1921 to Catania, in the latter year he earned a diploma in tailoring from Milan.
Aged 31, Bonnici was sent to Shanghai in China to carry out missionary work. Founding the first Salesian house in Shanghai along with his confreres, he worked there as an instructor in the tailoring shop until 1927. He then spent some time at St. Louis School in Hong Kong which had been entrusted to the Salesian Society. Besides being in charge of the shop, Bonnici was also bandmaster, contributing thus considerably to have the newly-arrived Salesians better known among the locals.
A pious, hard-working, and obedient confrere, Brother Aloysius later on accepted the responsibility of managing the printing shop of the school.
Following the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese, Bonnici was interned at Stanley until the end of the conflict, in spite of efforts made by the superiors through the International Red Cross to have him released. During the period spent at the concentration camp, he found work as a tailor and shared with his confreres the little money he was able to make. Returning to his native Malta following the Second World War, in 1957 he was diagnosed with brain tumor, to which he eventually succumbed in London.
Aged 31, Bonnici was sent to Shanghai in China to carry out missionary work. Founding the first Salesian house in Shanghai along with his confreres, he worked there as an instructor in the tailoring shop until 1927. He then spent some time at St. Louis School in Hong Kong which had been entrusted to the Salesian Society. Besides being in charge of the shop, Bonnici was also bandmaster, contributing thus considerably to have the newly-arrived Salesians better known among the locals.
A pious, hard-working, and obedient confrere, Brother Aloysius later on accepted the responsibility of managing the printing shop of the school.
Following the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese, Bonnici was interned at Stanley until the end of the conflict, in spite of efforts made by the superiors through the International Red Cross to have him released. During the period spent at the concentration camp, he found work as a tailor and shared with his confreres the little money he was able to make. Returning to his native Malta following the Second World War, in 1957 he was diagnosed with brain tumor, to which he eventually succumbed in London.
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