This page provides a short introduction on how the Order has developed from its origin in 1099 until today’s organisation.
A detailed history of the Order is presented in the book ‘The origins and history of the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta’, by HE Doctor Chevalier Antoine Bonello. See here for details of how to purchase.
A brief history of The Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta
The Knights emerged in Europe during the 9th century. The first Knights were professional cavalry warriors who offered protection to towns and villages from bandits and sea raiders. Subsequently, they became armoured cavalrymen and proved to be very effective in battles. As time went by the process of becoming a knight became solemn and a Christian behaviour came to be accepted, involving respect for the church and the protection of the weak and the poor. The Knights’ origins are to be linked to a particular moment in European history: the resurgence of the Latin West as a Mediterranean power. The first crusade, called by Pope Urban II in 1095 AD. and the consolidation of power to keep the conquests of Christian powers provided as a backdrop for the approval of the Order of St. John as an Order of the Church in 1113 AD. The institution developed an internal hierarchy, where rank was associated with different grades of power and functions.
Founded by the blessed Gerald at first the Order focused on the care of sick but then also contributed to the defence of the territories. Their evolution into warrior monks arose from the pressure brought to bear from the realities of conditions encountered by Christians in the East, in particular the continuous need for armed resistance to the Seldjuk first, the Mamelukes later, and ultimately the Ottoman Turks.
Those seeking admittance to the Order were to take the vows of chastity, obedience, poverty, and to follow the Augustinian rule. One also had to belong to the nobility. The recruitment of Knights from different areas of Western Europe would lead to the formation of the eight Tongues / languages. The countries that composed these tongues are France, Italy, Germany, England Aragon, Avergne, Provance and Castile. Each langue was assigned different responsibilities.
After the loss of the Holy Land to Seldjuk Turks the Knights first settled in Crete, then joined the Templars in Cyprus. King Henri II was against their settlement in his kingdom, and he issued out a solemn edict forbidding them to buy any estates. The need to be free started a chain of actions which saw Grand Master Guillaume de Villaret orchestrating an audacious plan for his Order. The acquisition of temporal domain with the capture of the island of Rhodes.
This island’s geographical position could ideally serve as port of call for the Christian pilgrims on their route to Jerusalem, while considering it as a steppingstone towards the liberation of the Holy Land from Muslim control.
The island of Rhodes came to represent a Garden of Eden for the Knights with fertile plains, a mild climate and plenty of water. Yet the tenancy of Rhodes would soon be challenged. The first significant attack was mounted in 1440 AD. Other attacks followed leading to the first siege of Rhodes in 1480 AD. and lastly to the second siege of 1522 AD., by Suleiman the magnificent.
The loss of Rhodes pitched the Order’s administration into crisis and dealt a big blow to any vestigial nostalgia for the medieval ideals of chivalry that had been built up over the 200 years stay on this island.
In 1524 AD., Charles V of Spain offered the islands of Malta and the city of Tripoli (Libya) to the Order of St John. The donation of this small island situated just below Sicily and facing the north African coast seemed inadequate to the Knights. A first exploration of Malta’s feasibility occurred that same year. A commission of Uomini Saggi (wise and knowledgeable men) consisting of eight persons, one for each Tongue of the Order, was sent to Malta to examine its facilities. Their report was very negative, for the island lacked all basic requirements, like water, fertile soil, fortifications and was in a dilapidated state. The only positive comment concerned its natural harbours.
Pope Clement VII advised the Hospitallers that there was no other place for them in Europe and must accept Charles V offer. The Order council heeded the Pope’s advice and between Malta and Tripoli, the former was chosen as their new settlement.
L’Isle Adam was the first of a series of Grandmasters who ruled these Islands for over 300 years. A new era had begun for strategic Malta.
The Hospitallers refused to establish the seat of their Convent in the old city of Mdina, which was a castle amidst rural environment, and instead preferred to settle in the harbour town of Birgu, this being more in accordance with their military and naval requirements.
The illustrious hero of the Siege of Rhodes, L’Isle Adam, died in 1534 AD., and after a succession of four more Grand Masters, Jean Parisot de Valette was in place by 1557 AD.
The Great Siege of 1565 AD. is what made the Order famous in history. The Knights and the Maltese heavily outnumbered stopped the mighty army of Suleiman the magnificent. The siege lasted 4 months with both sides suffering heavy causalities.
The most important fortification on which the Order started to work upon right after the Great Siege was that of the building of a new city on the barren ground of Sciberras Peninsula and was named for the Grand Master and hero of the siege Jean Parisot de Vallette.
The Order had effective and firm control in Malta. There were, however, two other authorities on the island, namely the Bishop of Malta and the Inquisitor of Malta, with whom friction sometimes arose over the degree of jurisdiction the various authorities had over the Maltese. The most significant episode in the Knights’ patronage of the arts occurred when they employed Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 – 1610). He remained on the island for fifteen months and painted some of his masterpieces during that time, including the beheading of St John the Baptist for the Oratory of Saint John’s church in Valetta,
On the morning of 9th June 1798 AD., the fleet of Napoleon Bonaparte stopped in Malta on its way to Egypt. Bonaparte requested the Grand Master’s permission to enter the fleet in the harbour with the pretext to take water supplies but was refused. Bonaparte took this refusal as a personal affront and ordered the invasion of the island. The disembarking French soldiers were faced with little or no opposition as the various garrisons in the massive fortifications surrendered, offering abject or no resistance. The Grand Master accepted a truce and three days later the capitulation was complete, with the Order signing the agreement by which it ceded Malta to the Republican forces of France. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch and a bevy of knights with a few of their movable possessions sailed ignominiously out of Grand Harbour.
The Knights of Malta in Russia
Relations between the Russian empire and the Order of St John were first established one hundred years before their expulsion from Malta when in 1698 AD. the Russian ambassador, Boris Petrovich Sheremetev , was received with honour in Valletta by the Order’s Grand Master Raymond de Pereylos. Although Sheremetev was of Russian orthodox religion, was still made a Knight soon after and became the first Russian knight of this Catholic Order. In later years Russian naval officers were sent by Empress Catherine II to Malta to conduct special military training with the Knights of St John.
After the capitulation of Malta to the French and the renunciation of Ferdinand von Hompesch of all authority, rights and privileges according to the Convention he signed with Napoleon Bonaparte in Malta on 12th June 1798 AD., there followed the establishment of Paul I, (then Royal Protector of the Order and Emperor of All the Russias), as Grand Master on 13th November 1798 AD. He was elected by a large assembly of Knights and Grand Crosses (some 249 knights) of the Order in St Petersburg, who addressed a Proclamation to Paul I dated 27th October 1798 AD.
Paul I had earlier been appointed Royal Protector of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem by a Convention signed in St Petersburg in January 1797 AD, duly authorized by the Order’s Grand Council under Grand Master Fra Emmanuel de Rohan Polduc, predecessor of von Hompesch. The same Hompesch ratified the treaty in August of the same year, sending an act of thanks to the Czar, who ratified the Convention in November 1797 AD. That Convention also authorized the creation of Hereditary jurisdictions in the vast Russian empire. In fact, by the same Convention of 15th January 1797 AD, authorized by Grand Master de Rohan in Malta, the Grand Priory of Poland, with ten Commanderies, became formally recognized by the Order in Malta to belong to the domain of the Russian Emperor and became known as the ‘Grand Priory of Russia’. The same Convention was again ratified by the new Grand Master von Hompesch on 7th August 1797 AD, together with a solicitation made to Paul I to be the Royal Protector of the Order.
On the 27th October 1798 AD., Paul I was proclaimed Grand Master by the Catholic and Orthodox Grand Priories of Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Bavaria and Germany and by all the Knights in St Petersburg. Around two hundred and forty-nine Knights were present for the proclamation in St Petersburg at the time, including the Papal Nuntius Lorenzo Litta. A great number of French Knights who had immigrated to Russia also elected Czar Paul I, some after having been admitted into the Catholic Russian Grand Priory, on the advice of King Louis XVIII of France, who happened to be exiled in Russia. He too recognised Czar Paul I as Grand Master. On the 5th November 1798 AD., Pope Pius VI wrote to Bailiff Alexander de Litta confirming his co-operation with Paul I in restoring the Order and inviting other Tongues and Priories to join in this spirit.
On the 29th August 1799 AD. Pope Pius VI fell ill and died. Napoleon instructed that no successor is to be elected. The Papacy was suppressed for ten months; this meant a collapse of the Church’s central administration and an end to any remnant ties it had with the old Order with regards jurisdiction, not that there was any left. Czar Paul I was now the sole and undisputed protector of the Order of St John.
On the 13th October 1799 AD, the Supreme Council decided that the dignity of the Protector would not be used for the time being as Czar Paul I was Grand Master.
The two Russian Grand Priories accounted for six hundred and forty-eight members, thirty percent being non-Russian (French, Italian, German, Irish), twenty-six Family Commanderies, five Honorary Commanders, Hereditary Commanders (non-family).
On 31st October 1799 AD, Admiral Nelson wrote a letter to Czar Paul addressing him as Grand Master to confirm that Captain Ball would hold Malta for him and to make Captain Ball commander of the Order.
The Maltese cross was included in the emblem of the Russian Empire from August 1799 AD. to 1801 AD.
Following Paul I demise, his son Czar Alexander I, assumed full control of the Order and appointed Nicholas Saltykoff as its Lt Grand Master. The treaty of Amiens of 1802 AD, decreed that Malta was to be returned to its original owner the Order of St John. This outcome prevented Alexander I, as Czar of all Russias, to officially assume the title of Grand Master, for it implied leaving Russia and reside in Malta, something which he who had just inherited the Russian Empire, surely could not do. However, he kept the title of Royal Protector of the Order for life.
Giving the current situation it was therefore imperative for the Order to appoint a Grand Master and retake control of Malta. However, wars and European political turmoil prevented the retake of Malta by the Knights. Czar Alexander and his successors kept the title of Royal Protectors of the Order. In 1810/1811 AD, Alexander I enacted a number of Imperial Decrees (UKAS) the main motive of which was to gain the property and money of the Order in Russia for the war chest in the struggle against Napoleon. These Decrees created a fiscal and legal separation of the Order’s Orthodox main Grand Priory of St. John from the Roman Catholic Grand Priory in Poland, with the latter being returned to the control of Pope Pius VII (successor of Pius VI).
Besides hereditary titles the Order educated young men at the school, the Corps des Pages, in St. Petersburg. The Corps des Pages was the academy for the creation of new Knights of Malta. The graduates of this school became leaders of the exclusive Guard Divisions and thereby protectors of the Imperial Family of Russia.
The Order continued its tradition in Russia until the Bolshevik revolution, were several members of the Romanoff dynasty and high-ranking members of the Order in the Russian realm eventually expanded into the New World, such as the USA, Canada, the Americas, and Australasia. The Order flourished and eventually expanded into Europe; Malta included.
In 1976 AD, after long discussions held in America the Supreme Council decided to transfer the International Headquarters of the Order from America to Malta. The island was once again home of the Order. Malta as in the past was to serve as base for the Order’s charity work World Wide and in 1991 AD, Castello dei Baroni was elevated as seat of the Grand Magisterial Chancery and seat of the supreme council and reining seat of the Grand Master.
Today, one therefore understands, from these geo-political events, why there are different branches of the original Order of St John of Jerusalem. As things turned out, the Italian Members of the Order were re-grouped under a Lt Grand Master and ultimately elected a Grand Master, duly sanctioned by the then Pontiff. This branch of the original Order is today known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem claims no connection to the last mentioned but it similarly derives from the original Order that existed in Malta. It derives its historical ‘fons honorum’ from the Czar Paul the First, Emperor of All the Russias, appointed Grand Master of the Order in 1798 AD., following the expulsion from Malta of Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch, together with the entire Order by dictat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The present Grand Master is his Serene Highness Sandor Habsburg Lothringen and the Spiritual Protector of the Order is his Most Eminent Reverend Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani.
The Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta works in the fields of charity, medical and social welfare care, and humanitarian aid. Important donations made by the Order include mobile hospitals, ambulances, hospital beds, clothing, computers, medicines and medical equipment to various nations among them China, Russia, Honduras, Iraq, Philippines, Ukraine and Africa.
Hereunder is a general timeline (though not complete) of events occurring during the 19th and 20th century:
1814 -1825: The PEERAGE by Debrett states that CZAR Alexander is the Grand Patron of the Order.
1822: Letters from Vienna indicate that the emperor of Austria was interested in the Order of Malta, and that he must have done this with respect and propitious to Emperor Alexander.
1844: Ordres De Chevalerie et Marques D’Honneur states that the Order in Russia is under the Protection of the Emperor, who is head of the Chapter. Its connection with the Chapter in Rome is of a very loose character and that it counts 98 Commanders.
1852: Czar Nicholas orders that annually, on the 12th of October, the relics of the Order should the moved from the church of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg to the Gathchina Cathedral and that that day should be observed there as a holiday.
1858: The Book of Orders by Sir Bernard Burks states that the Order in Russia is under the Protection of the Emperor, who is head of the Chapter, and that it counts 98 Commanders. Its connection with the Chapter in Rome is of a very loose character.
1861: The Papal Order is mentioned in the Almanach de Gotha for the first time. The Gotha also mentions Hereditary Commanders in 1885, 1889, 1908, 1914, 1925, 1928, 1934 and 1940.
1881: Czar Alexander II’s Court authorizes Prince Troubetzky to wear his insignia as Hereditary Commander of the Order in Russia at the funeral of the Emperor. Similarly, the Crown of the Grandmaster is displayed besides the coffin of the Emperor when Lying-in State and during Religious Functions.
1876-76: Enciclopedia Araldico states that Russia has a chapter of the Order and accepts admissions.
1897-1916: Imperial Badges incorporating the white Maltese cross are presented to Graduates of the Corps of Pages of His Majesty, the Imperial Guard Cossack Regiment of His Majesty, the 95th Omsk Infantry Regiment and the 93rd Kura Irkutsk Infantry Regiment of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.
1904, 2nd December: The White Cross is organized in America. 1910, 30th December: The Order forms an association in Jersey City, country of Huston in America called The Knights of Malta. as a modern philanthropic and charitable order of chivalry (hereinafter “The Order” or “SHOSJ”) and which emerged from the Order that held Malta and Gozo as a fiefdom from 1530 until 1798 (hereinafter “the ancient Order”).
1911, 18th January: Official registration of the Order’s Statute in America. A first Trademark for the Sovereign Order is also registered in the U.S.A.
1912, 17th of November: IMPERIAL MAJESTY’S CHANCERY, Decree No. 96803 authorizes Count A.B Armfeldt, to wear the Insignia of the Order of Saint John, with the right to transfer it to his son after his death.
1913, 1st September: Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovich is elected 72nd Grand Master.
1915: Robert R. McCORMICE states, in his book WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY, ‘The Corps des Pages are the Knights of Malta. Entrance to the school is restricted to: (1) Sons of the Knights of Malta, (2) Sons of Generals and lieutenant Generals’.
1919: The relics of the Order of St John kept in Gatchina are passed to Count Ignatiev, head of the Russian White Cross in Estonia during General Yudenich operations against the soviet forces.
1931, 13th June: Act of Appointment of Metropolitan Platon as Chief Prelate of our Order, dated and signed by Grand Master Grand Duke Alexander Michailovich.
1956: Registration of the Order in the state of Delaware. 1960: Certificate of the Incorporation of the Sovereign order of St John of Jerusalem.
1976: Castello dei Baroni becomes The International Headquarters of the Order and Seat of the Supreme Council.
1976: Letter on behalf of the Government of Malta, signed by Minister Agatha Barbara, to the Order of St John, thanking it for the donation of Medical instruments.
1977: The Order of St John is recognised by the state of Indiana and April 7, 1977, is proclaimed Dedication Day for the Order of St John. Signed by Governor Otis R. Bowen.
1982: Proclamation by Prince Wassili Alexandrowich Romanov bestows the Imperial Protection to the Knights Hospitallers of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem on 27th April, 1982.
1993: King Michael of Romania becomes the Royal Protector of the Order.
2002: Registration of Name and Insignia of the Order in Malta.
2009: The Prime minister of Canada greets the New Knights and Dames of the Order and reaffirms that the Grand Priory of Canada received its charter in 1974.
2012: The Order is registered under the Ltd Companies Act of 1995: C 57573.
2012: A letter of His Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal Sergio Sebastiano states that he is the Spiritual Protector of the Order.
2012: HIRH Sandor Prince Sandor Habsburg Lothringen Archiduke of Austria and Prince of Tuscany and Herta Margarete Habsburg Lothringen, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Tuscany become Royal Protectors of the Order.
2018: The GP of Malta / Italy/ England/ Hungary/ Sweden/ Germany are registered as a VO (Voluntary Organisation).
(Viz. also: “The Malta and Russia Connection”, a history of diplomatic relations between Malta and Russia, based on original Russian documents, by Dr Giuseppi Schembri. The Origins and Histories of the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St John Knights of Malta, by Antoine Bonello).
The origins and history of the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta
HE Doctor Chevalier Antoine Bonello, author.
An English limited-edition of hard-cover back print of just 50 books has been published and all books were sold on forehand. These books were signed by HE Doctor Chevalier Antoine Bonello (author), HIRH the Prince Grand Master Sandor Habsburg-Lothringen and HIRH the Royal Protector Herta Margarete Habsburg-Lothringen.
This first publication was entirely sponsored by the Secretary General, HE Doctor Chevalier Antoine Bonello and all the generated revenue will be donated to the Order for charity work.
A second publication, an English paperback version, will be offered for purchase to the public. In addition, the Grand Priory of Italy and the Grand Priory of Hungary have offered to translate and publish the book in their respective languages.
Furthermore, this historical book will be made available as compulsory to all new Knights and Dames of the Order, though with a paperback cover.
Information on how to order the paperback cover book can be found here.