History Of The Order
he geopolitics of the eastern Mediterranean region during the era of
the Crusades makes the present situation appear idyllic. With the Byzantine
Empire in decline, there were few major countries, and many minor principalities.
The map was a quilt of duchies, bishoprics and bailiwicks that were
ceaselessly forming and dissolving alliances with or against each other.
Power
was not necessarily linked to geography. One of the most powerful political
organizations in the late Middle Ages was the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,
the Knights Hospitallers, whose ranks were comprised of the scions of
the richest aristocratic families of Europe. Formed in Jerusalem in
the 11th Century to provide hospital care and protection to Christian
pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, the Knights soon became one of the
foremost military powers in the region. Their base of operations was
a string of castles. After the Saracens dislodged them from Jerusalem,
the Knights relocated briefly to Cyprus, and then to the island of Rhodes
in the year 1309.
In 1522, the Ottoman Emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent, successfully laid siege against the Knights in their Aegean stronghold. Once more they were set adrift. After a two-year stay in Corinth, Greece, which the Knights again defended against Muslim attacks, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, offered them the island of Malta in 1530 with favorable terms. In exchange for a perpetual lease, the Knights sent the Emperor a falcon once every year as a token of their fealty. They remained, making the island the most impregnable fortress in the Mediterranean.
In
1565, a vast Ottoman fleet of 250 ships carrying some 40,000 men, lay
siege to the Islands. The Knights were heavily outnumbered with a mere
700 men and around 8000 Maltese regular troops. The Ottomans first decided
to attack isolated Fort St Elmo, on the Sceberras peninsula, because
of its commanding position between the two harbors. Repeated assaults
were launched over 36 days, but the small garrison of Knights held on
to the fort for far longer than Suleiman anticipated. After four weeks,
the Turks finally overran St. Elmo, but at a heavy price, the loss of
8000 men.
The
Turkish general was so vexed by the Knights' stubbornness that he had
the dead bodies of St. Elmo's defenders nailed to crosses and set afloat
in the harbor. In retaliation, the Grand Master of the Order, Jean de
la Valette, beheaded his Turkish prisoners and fired their heads from
cannons into the enemy lines.
It is the battle for St Angelo in Valetta that saw some of the bloodiest
episodes of this Holy war. It was to be the basis of legends for centuries
to come. Mustafa Pasha was to launch some 10 attacks on the walls of
St Angelo, and the fortified Three Cities throughout the long, hot summer
of 1565. Even on 18th August, when a huge part of the defenses were
breached, the Ottomans failed to take the Fort. Grand Master Jean de
la Valette himself had entered the battle fray, and despite the uneven
odds for success, he had refused to accept the Ottoman's terms of surrender.
By
September, the Ottomans were concerned about having to remain in Malta
during the winter, and their morale began to ebb. At this point, Valette's
long-awaited relief forces appeared at Mellieha Bay, and took control
of high ground inland. Almost trapped, the Ottoman troops retreated,
but not before losing thousands more men. In the aftermath of the siege,
the Knights used their enormous wealth to rebuild Malta as the masterpiece
of military architecture.
In
1798, Napoleon threatened to invade Malta. The Order of St. John, headed
by Grand Master Ferdinand Von Hompesch, surrendered without resistance.
Von Hompesch went into exile, and some of the Knights scattered all
over Europe, returning to France, Spain, Prussia, Bavaria, Italy, and
England, where they joined their brother Knights and arranged separate
protection in one form or another, establishing their various groups
as independently functioning chapters according to their geopolitical
location and religious persuasion. That was the beginning of other Branches
of the Order that exist today.
The
majority of the Knights opposed the decision by Von Hompesch. Lead by
the Prince de Condé, they established themselves in St. Petersburg,
Russia under the royal protection of Tsar Paul I. In 1798, the Catholic
Grand Priory of Russia (formerly of Poland), along with the newly established
Orthodox Grand Priory of Russia, elected Tsar Paul I as the 70th Grand
Master of the Order. Pope Pius VI, from the Monastery of Cassini near
Florence, bestowed his paternal and apostolic benediction upon Paul
I shortly after he accepted the office of Grand Master. The Russian
Orthodox Grand Priory of the Order included 117 Commanderies, and 23
Hereditary Knights created by Paul I. After the fall of the Russian
Empire in 1917, these Hereditary Knights continued the activities of
the Order in the United States, France, Denmark, and other countries.
Today, although the Knights, like the Christian Church, are split into
many Orders, our Order is true to the original tradition, and operates
under the royal protection of King Michael of Romania and of Prince
Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov, son of the last Grand Master of the Russian
Order of St. John (Order of Malta), and brother-in-law to Tsar Nicholas
II. Our Knights and Dames are all bearers of the centuries-old tradition
of caring for the sick and the poor, and observe the Code that was written
centuries ago. The Motto of the Order everywhere is:
PRO
FIDE, PRO UTILITATE HOMINUM
"FOR THE FAITH AND IN THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY"