Pietro Casu was born in Berchidda on April 13, 1878. He became parish priest of Oschiri and then Berchidda, where he remained until his death on Jan. 20, 1954. He was a theologian, philosopher, writer and taught letters at the seminaries of Ozieri and Sassari. He was certainly one of the most important figures of early 20th-century Sardinia. He was a profound connoisseur and lover of the Sardinian language, which he often used even in official speeches and in his sermons; sermons that had a great effect on the faithful both because of his excellent use of the Sardinian language and because of the “classical” quotations he used to make and which were collected and published in 1979 in the volume “Preigas.” He also wrote several poems and novels in Italian, such as “Aurora Sarda,” “La Voragine,” “Notte Sarda” considered his masterpiece, “Ghermita al core.” Pietro Casu has studied and researched Sardinian Logudorese, producing a manuscript work of over a thousand sheets, printed in 2002, the “Sardinian Logudorese-Italian Vocabulary.” He also translated Italian and foreign poems into Sardinian and edited the Sarda Logudorese translation of the Divina Commedia, published in 1929 under the title “Sa Divina Cumedia de Dante in limba salda.” In his honor, the Poetry Prize named after him has been held every two years for more than 20 years, thanks to the “Eredi Pietro Casu” Association and in collaboration with the Municipality of Berchidda, and is open to all poets who can participate with elaborate works in Sardinian in its different variants.
