Added: Dec 21, 2010

From: matheona

Duration: 3:3

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Italian: Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta) (known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta [SMOM], Order of Malta or Knights of Malta for short) is a Roman Catholic order based in Rome, Italy. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is widely considered a sovereign subject of international law. It takes its origins from the Knights Hospitaller, a group founded in Jerusalem about 1050 as an Amalfitan hospital to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, it became a Catholic military order under its own charter. Following the loss of Christian held territories of the Holy Land to Muslims, the Order operated from Rhodes (1310--1523), and later from Malta (1530--1798), over which it was sovereign. Although this state came to an end with the ejection of the Order from Malta by Napoleon, the Order as such survived. It retains its claims of sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations.SMOM is considered to be the main successor to the medieval Knights Hospitaller. Through its worldwide relief corps—Malteser International—the Order is also engaged to aid victims of natural disasters, epidemics and armed conflicts. Membership in the order is divided into the following classes: knights of justice or "profess knights" who take religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and form what amounts to a religious order (until the 1990s membership in this class was restricted to members of families with noble titles); knights of obedience (similarly restricted, these knights make a promise, rather than a vow, of obedience); knights of honour and devotion, knights of grace and devotion and knights of magistral grace, all of these classes made up of members who take no vows, and who had to show a decreasingly extensive history of nobility (knights of magistral grace do not have to prove any noble lineage, and are the most common form of knights in the United States). Within each class of knights there are ranks ranging from bailiff grand cross (the highest) through knights grand cross, knights commanders, knights officers and knights—thus one could be a "knight commander of grace and devotion," or a "bailiff grand cross of justice." A final rank of "donat" is offered to some who join the order in the class of "justice" but who are not knights. Prior to the 1990s, all officers of the Order had to be of noble birth (i.e., armigerous for at least 100 years), as they were all knights of justice or of obedience; however, Knights of Magistral Grace (i.e. those without noble proofs) may now make the Promise of Obedience and may, at the discretion of the Grand Master and Sovereign Council, enter the novitiate to become professed Knights of Justice. Worldwide, there are over 12,500 knights and dames, a small minority of whom are professed religious. Membership of the Order is by invitation only and solicitations are not entertained. The Order's finances are audited by a Board of Auditors, which includes a President and four Councillors, all elected by the Chapter General. The Order's judicial powers are exercised by a group of Magistral Courts, whose judges are appointed by the Grand Master and Sovereign Council.

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