Grand Masters and Secret Meetings

---

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (S.M.O.M), has the distinction of being the worlds smallest country. While some legal experts doubt its true sovereignty, it does have a small parcel of land (a little over an acre if I remember correctly), and issues its own passports, postage stamps, currency and license plates. I believe the quandary comes from the fact that while the country has citizens, it has no full time residents. Legal semantics aside, visiting the ‘country’ was cool. It is in Rome, and overlooks the Vatican.

Here is a short history of the organization behind the parcel of land that may or may not legally sovereign:
In 600, Abbot Probus was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to build a hospital in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the first Crusade and over time, the Christians that worked in this capacity also took upon themselves the role of defending the pilgrims. This group grew into a sizeable force, and circa 1100 was tied with the Knights Templar as the most powerful Christian force in the region. With the fall of Jerusalem to Muslim forces, the Knights moved around from place to place, including Rhodes, Cyprus and Malta. Unfortunately, wherever the Order established itself seemed to be next on the conquest list of the Ottoman Empire. The Knights base on the Island of Malta was the target of the invasion fleet that ended up being annihilated in the Sea Battle of Lepanto, 1607. Once somewhat secure on their base, the Knights served the area by attacking pirates operating in the Mediterranean. Napoleon captured the Island from the order in 1798 on his way to Egypt. The base of operations for the order moved around considerably until 1963, when it seems to have been formally re-established at its present location. The order that the country represents has returned back to its original purpose, which is to administer hospitals in the Holy Land. The organization also does considerable aid relief throughout the world.

http://www.orderofmalta.org/

I toured the site with my TWU travel study class for a few hours, and met with the Press Secretary of the order to learn more about it. One of the many strange things about the order is that the leader is called a ‘Grand Master’ (I kid you not) and they operate somewhat like a secret society. For half the talk I had images of Klan members jumping around in white robes in my head. When asked (by me) why they still referred to the leader as a Grand Master, we were informed it was because of tradition. I guess they didn’t get the memo about some things best being left to the past. After viewing the premises and the not terribly large villa on it, we ventured out to see what else Rome had to offer.

---