It’s a Country. . .it’s a Religious Order. . . It’s a Lay Movement. No, Wait – It’s the Knights of Malta!

A friend of mine summed up her impression of the Knights this way: “it’s an honorary order for people who give lots of money to the Church.” Fortunately, the reality is much more interesting.

(This picture is of the Loggia of the Palace of the Knights of Malta which hangs dramatically over the imperial forum. I spent one noon time on top of Trajan's market next door, listening to the bells of Rome and admiring the Loggia.).

The Knights of Malta are absolutely unique: both a sovereign entity under international law and an essentially lay religious order. The Order has its own constitution, passports, stamps, etc. and has diplomatic relations with 94 countries as well as observer status at the United Nations.

Although some members of the Order, including the Grand Master, who is elected for life, are professed knights (having taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience), others have pronounced only the promise of obedience. Most of the Order's 12,500 knights and dames are lay.

The Knights have a dramatic history. Formally known as the "Sovereign Military Hospitalier Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta", the community was founded in the 11th century to run a hospital for pilgrms in Jerusalem. In 1113, the Pope declared the community to be an Order and all the Knights religious.

The constitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem obliged the Order to take on the military defense of the sick, the pilgrims and the territories that the crusaders had conquered from the Moslems. The Order thus added the task of defending the faith to being hospitallers.

As time went on, the Order adopted the white eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today.

When the last Christian bastion in the Holy Land fell to the Muslims, the Knights moved to Rhodes where they defended Christian interests against Muslims for 250 years. In 1523, the Knights were forced to surrender Rhodes to Suleiman the Magnificent after a 6 month siege and were allowed to leave with military honors.

The Order was given the island of Malta in 1530 and played a major role in the battle of Lepanto in 1571 which destroyed Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean. Two centuries later, the Order was forced to leave Malta by Napoleon and eventually settled in Rome.

(The picture at left is of St. Peters seen through the famous "keyhole" of the Palace of the Knights of Malta. Since the Palace is a sovereign nation and so is the Vatican, the joke is that you are seeing three countries at once as you peer over Italian territory to the dome of St. Peters!)

Today, the Order has undertaken an astonishing variety of good works in the field of medical and social care and humanitarian aid, in over 120 countries, supported by the diplomatic relations it currently has with 94 nations. The Order also runs hospitals, medical centres, day hospitals, nursing homes for the elderly and the disabled, and special centres for the terminally ill .

The Order relies on the involvement of its 12,000 members, as well as approximately 80,000 trained volunteers and 11,000 employees, most of whom are medical personnel.

Malteser International, the Order’s worldwide relief service, works in the front line in natural disasters and armed conflicts. For over 40 years, the Order has been dealing extensively with the treatment of leprosy - through its CIOMAL foundation (Comite International de l'Ordre de Malte). CIOMAL is also involved in the fight against disease or handicaps and has launched programmes to assist mothers and children in the third world who suffer from AIDS.

The primary responsibility for funding all these works lies with the Order’s members so they give to good purpose.

Last year, the Knight reclaimed their historic headquarters, the Castle St. Angelo, on Malta. They have a 99 year lease on the castle and have finally returned to Malta.