The Order of Malta
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta – known as the ‘Order of Malta’ – is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. The Order was founded by Blessed Gerard Sasso in Jerusalem, and is documented in existence in 1048. It is a ‘military hospitaller’ order, that is, one comprised of knights who live out the charism of the Order (to defend the Catholic faith and serve the sick and the poor) whilst living in the world rather than in cloisters. Blessed Gerard conceived of a radical model of service in which knights voluntarily humbled themselves from their elevated worldly station to serve ‘Our Lords the Sick and the Poor’ as if those most vulnerable in society were their feudal overlords.
Blessed Gerard’s community was established initially to administer a hospital for pilgrims in Jerusalem, dedicated to St John the Baptist. Under Blessed Gerard’s successor, Blessed Raymond de Puy, the first written Rule of the Order was produced and on 15 February 1113, Pope Paschal II issued the Bull Pie Postulatio, placing the Order under the aegis of the Church, granting it the right to freely elect its superiors without interference from any other lay or religious authorities.
This bull and many subsequent confirming the Order’s privileges form the basis both of the Order’s exemption from episcopal supervision within the Church and also of the Order’s sovereign character, recognised as an independent subject of international law (similar to the Vatican) and with diplomatic relations with many countries across the world. This status enables the Order to more effectively reach those in need, even in countries which have difficult relationships with Western powers.
The Order is now the one of the world’s largest providers of non-governmental aid. Permanently present in most countries of the world, it provides assistance for refugees, disaster relief and prevention, fights diseases and epidemics, and provides permanent medical facilities and social assistance. You can find out more about the Order at the website of the central government of the Order, the Grand Magistry, here.
In Great Britain, the British Association, the Grand Priory’s sister organisation, works with the homeless and disadvantaged, operates a number of residential care homes with the elderly as part of the Orders of St John Care Trust, and partners with the Nehemiah Project working with former prisoners. The primary volunteer body of the Order in Britain is the Companionsof the Order of Malta, which has hundreds of volunteer members spread throughout Great Britain working with those in need in their communities. You can read about these and other projects at the British Association’s website.
