Founding , founder of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. Copper engraving by
Laurent Cars, about 1725. , c. 1508,
Uffizi The birth of the
Knights Hospitaller dates back to around 1048. Merchants from the ancient
Marine Republic of Amalfi obtained from the Caliph of Egypt the authorisation to build a church, convent, and hospital in Jerusalem, to care for pilgrims of any religious faith or race. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem – the monastic community that ran the hospital for the pilgrims in the Holy Land – became independent under the guidance of its founder, the religious brother
Gerard. With the
Papal bull Pie postulatio voluntatis dated 15 February 1113,
Pope Paschal II approved the foundation of the Hospital and placed it under the aegis of the Holy See, granting it the right to freely elect its superiors without interference from other secular or religious authorities. By virtue of the Papal bull, the hospital became an order exempt from the control of the local church. All the Knights were religious, bound by the three monastic vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience. The constitution of the Christian
Kingdom of Jerusalem during the
Crusades obliged the order to take on the military defence of the sick, the pilgrims, and the captured territories. The order thus added the task of defending the faith to that of its hospitaller mission. As time went on, the order adopted the white, eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today. The eight points represent the eight beatitudes that Jesus pronounced in his
Sermon on the Mount.
Cyprus When the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell after the
Siege of Acre in 1291, the order settled first in
Cyprus.
Rhodes In 1310, led by
Grand Master Fra'
Foulques de Villaret, the knights regrouped on the island of
Rhodes. From there, the defense of the Christian world required the organization of a naval force, so the Order built a powerful fleet and sailed the
eastern Mediterranean, fighting battles for the sake of
Christendom, including
Crusades in
Syria and
Egypt. In the early 14th century, the institutions of the Order and the knights who came to Rhodes from every corner of Europe were grouped according to the languages they spoke. The first seven such groups, or
Langues (Tongues) – from
Provence,
Auvergne,
France,
Italy,
Aragon (
Navarre),
England (with
Scotland and Ireland), and
Germany – became eight in 1492, when
Castile and
Portugal were separated from the
Langue of Aragon. Each
Langue included
Priories or Grand Priories,
Bailiwicks, and
Commanderies. The Order was governed by its Grand Master, the Prince of Rhodes, and its Council. From its beginning, independence from other nations granted by pontifical charter and the universally recognized right to maintain and deploy armed forces constituted grounds for the international sovereignty of the Order, which minted its own coins and maintained diplomatic relations with other states. The senior positions of the Order were given to representatives of different
Langues. In 1523, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent, the walls collapsed from undermining explosives, and by a negotiated surrender the Knights left Rhodes carrying their arms.
Malta (1571), unknown artist, late 16th century The Order remained without a territory of its own until 1530, when Grand Master Fra'
Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle Adam took possession of the island of
Malta, granted to the order by Emperor
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his mother Queen
Joanna of Castile as monarchs of Sicily, with the approval of
Pope Clement VII, for which the order had to honour the conditions of the
Tribute of the Maltese Falcon. In 1565, the Knights, led by Grand Master Fra'
Jean de Valette (after whom the capital of Malta,
Valletta, was named), defended the island for more than three months during the
Great Siege by the
Ottomans. The fleet of the Order contributed to the ultimate destruction of the Ottoman naval power in the
Battle of Lepanto in 1571, led by
John of Austria, half brother of King
Philip II of Spain. The
Reformation, which split Western Europe into
Protestant and
Catholic states, affected the knights as well. In several countries, including England, Scotland, and Sweden, the order dissolved. In others, including the
Netherlands and Germany, entire bailiwicks or commanderies (administrative divisions of the order) experienced Protestant conversions; these "
Johanniter orders" survive in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden and many other countries, including the United States and South Africa. It was established that the order should remain neutral in any war between Christian nations. From 1651 to 1665, the Order
ruled four islands in the Caribbean. On 21 May 1651 it acquired the islands of
Saint Barthélemy,
Saint Christopher,
Saint Croix and
Saint Martin. These were purchased from the French
Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique which had just been dissolved. In 1665, the four islands were sold to the
French West India Company. of
Russia wearing the Crown of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1799) In 1798,
Napoleon led the
French occupation of Malta. Napoleon demanded from Grand Master
Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim that his ships be allowed to enter the port and to take on water and supplies. The Grand Master replied that only two foreign ships could be allowed to enter the port at a time. Bonaparte, aware that such a procedure would take a long time and leave his forces vulnerable to British Admiral
Horatio Nelson, immediately ordered a cannon fusillade against Malta. The French soldiers disembarked in Malta at seven points on the morning of 11 June and attacked. After several hours of fierce fighting, the Maltese in the west were forced to surrender. Napoleon opened negotiations with the fortress capital of Valletta. Faced with vastly superior French forces and the loss of western Malta, the Grand Master negotiated a surrender to the invasion. Hompesch left Malta for Trieste on 18 June. He resigned as Grand Master on 6 July 1799. The knights were dispersed, though the Order continued to exist in a diminished form and negotiated with European governments for a return to power as part of the agreement between France and Holy Roman Empire during the
German mediatisation. The Russian Emperor,
Paul I, gave the largest number of knights shelter in
Saint Petersburg, an action that gave rise to the
Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller and the Order's recognition among the Russian Imperial Orders. The refugee knights in Saint Petersburg proceeded to elect Tsar Paul as their Grand Master – a rival to Grand Master von Hompesch until the latter's abdication left Paul as the sole Grand Master. Grand Master Paul I created, in addition to the Catholic Grand Priory, a "Russian Grand Priory" of no fewer than 118 Commanderies, dwarfing the rest of the Order and open to all Christians. Paul's election as Grand Master was, however, never ratified under Catholic canon law, and he was the
de facto rather than
de jure Grand Master of the Order. By the early 19th century, the Order was severely weakened by the loss of its priories throughout Europe. Only 10% of the order's income came from traditional sources in Europe, with the remaining 90% being generated by the Russian Grand Priory until 1810. This was partly reflected in the government of the Order being under Lieutenants, rather than Grand Masters, in the period 1805 to 1879, when
Pope Leo XIII restored a Grand Master to the order. This signaled the renewal of the Order's fortunes as a humanitarian and religious organization.
Exile The French forces occupying Malta expelled the Knights Hospitaller from the country. During the seventeen years that separated the seizure of Malta and the General Peace, "the formality of electing a brother Chief to discharge the office of Grand Master, and thus to preserve the vitality of the Sovereign Institute, was duty attended to". The
Treaty of Amiens (1802) obliged the
United Kingdom to evacuate Malta, which was to be restored to a recreated Order of St. John, whose sovereignty was to be guaranteed by all of the major European powers, to be determined at the final peace. However, this did not happen because of objections to the treaty that quickly grew in the United Kingdom. Bonaparte's rejection of a British offer involving a ten-year lease of Malta prompted the reactivation of the British blockade of the French coast; Britain declared war on France on 18 May. The 1802 treaty was never implemented. The United Kingdom resumed hostilities citing France's imperialist policies in the
West Indies, Italy, and Switzerland.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Rome, Italy The
Congress of Vienna of 1815 confirmed the loss of Malta. After having temporarily resided in Messina, Catania and
Ferrara, the seat of the order was moved to Ferrara in 1826 and to Rome in 1834. The
Magistral Palace in Via Condotti 68 and the
Magistral Villa on the
Aventine Hill enjoy
extraterritorial status. The grand priories of Lombardy-Venetia and of Sicily were restored from 1839 to 1841. The office of Grand Master was restored by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, after a vacancy of 75 years, confirming
Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce as the first Grand Master of the restored Order of Malta. However, the loss of possession of Malta during this period did not affect the right of active and passive
legation for the Order, which is legally important for the absolute continuity of international status, regardless of the former territorial possession. The original hospitaller mission became the main activity of the order, growing ever stronger during the 20th century, most especially because of the contribution of the activities carried out by the Grand Priories and National Associations in many countries around the world. Large-scale hospitaller and charitable activities were carried out during World Wars I and II under Grand Master Fra'
Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere (1931–1951). Under the Grand Masters Fra'
Angelo de Mojana di Cologna (1962–1988) and Fra'
Andrew Bertie (1988–2008), the projects expanded. In February 2013, the Order celebrated the 900th anniversary of its papal recognition with a general audience with
Pope Benedict XVI and a Mass celebrated by Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone in
Saint Peter's Basilica. The order has 95,000 volunteers.
Constitutional reform The Order experienced a leadership crisis beginning in December 2016, when
Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager protested his removal as Grand Chancellor by Grand Master Fra'
Matthew Festing. Festing had removed Von Boeselager after other aid groups were found to have distributed
condoms as part of a joint charitable project with the order’s Malteser International to help sex slaves in
Myanmar protect themselves from AIDS. In January 2017,
Pope Francis ordered von Boeselager reinstated and required Festing's resignation. Francis also named Archbishop (later Cardinal)
Giovanni Becciu as his personal representative to the Order – sidelining the Order's Cardinal Patron
Raymond Burke – until the election of a new Grand Master. The pope effectively taking control over the Order was seen by some as a break with tradition and the Order's independence. In May 2017, the Order named Mauro Bertero Gutiérrez, a Bolivian member of the Government Council, to lead its constitutional reform process. In June 2017, in a departure from tradition, the leadership of the Order wore a
suit rather than
full dress uniforms to their annual papal audience. In May 2018 when a new Grand Master was elected, Francis extended Becciu's mandate indefinitely. When the Order's
Chapter General met in May 2019 three of the 62 participants were women for the first time. On 1 November 2020, Pope Francis named Archbishop (later Cardinal)
Silvano Tomasi to replace Becciu as his Special Delegate to the Order, reiterating the responsibilities of that office as his sole representative. On 3 September 2022, Pope Francis
promulgated the new constitution of the Order and made provisional appointments to the Sovereign Council; he scheduled a convocation of the Extraordinary General Chapter for 25 January 2023, when regular appointments can be made in place of his provisional ones. On 26 January, the General Chapter elected to six-year terms on the Sovereign Council the same four members Francis had appointed the previous September and six of the nine Councillors he had named. On 19 June 2023, Pope Francis named Cardinal
Gianfranco Ghirlanda to succeed Burke as patron. ==Organisation==