The Order of Malta

Knights with a state, then without

The Order began in the 11th century as the Hospitallers of St John, who ran a hospital for pilgrims in Jerusalem. On 15 February 1113 Pope Paschal II recognised it as an order under the Church’s protection, free to elect its own leaders.^[3]

It became a sovereign power. From 1310 the knights ruled Rhodes, where the Grand Master was Prince of Rhodes and the Order minted its own money and kept diplomatic relations; after a six-month siege by Suleiman the Magnificent they left in 1523. In 1530 Emperor Charles V granted them Malta, which they held through the Great Siege of 1565 and fortified with Valletta.^[3]

Napoleon occupied Malta in 1798 on his way to Egypt, and the knights left. The Treaty of Amiens of 1802 confirmed their rights to the island but was never applied. After stays in Messina, Catania and Ferrara, the Order settled in Rome in 1834.^[3]

Sovereign, with two buildings

The Order still calls itself a sovereign subject of international law, linked to the Holy See as a religious order but independent of it.^[1] It has diplomatic relations with 115 countries and the European Union and is a permanent observer at the United Nations.^[2] It issues diplomatic passports to its leaders and envoys and service passports, about 50 in use, to aid workers in danger zones.^[6]

Its government sits in the Magistral Palace on Via dei Condotti, a palazzo left to the Order in 1629 that became the Grand Master’s seat when the Order came to Rome. It houses the Order’s mint and post office; its stamps can be sent to the 58 countries it has postal agreements with.^[4] The second seat, the Magistral Villa on the Aventine Hill, has been the Order’s since the 14th century and enjoys extraterritorial rights. Visitors climb the hill to peer through its keyhole, which frames the dome of St Peter’s.^[5]