Ministates: Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta

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Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
  • Name: Supremus Ordo Militaris Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodius et Melitensis(Latin), Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta (Italian)
  • Short form: Order of Malta
  • Capital: Palazzo Malta (in Rome), 41°54′19″N 12°28′50.1″E
  • Official languages: Italian, Latin (not in use)
  • Religion: Roman Catholic
  • Demonym: Maltese
  • Government: Theocratic military order
  • Grand master: Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein (acting)
  • Independence: 1113 (Papal recognition of sovereignty)
  • Area: 18 ha
  • Population: about 12000 members
  • Currency: Maltese scudo
  • Time zone: CET
  • Drives on the: N/A
  • Calling code: not in use, +302 is reserved
  • ISO 3166 code: OM
  • Internet TLD: .om

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Latin: Supremus Ordo Militaris Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodius et Melitensis), also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) or Order of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order traditionally of military, chivalrous and noble nature. It was founded as the Knights Hospitaller circa 1099 in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, by the Blessed Gerard, making it the world's oldest surviving chivalric order.

Its mission is summed up in its motto: Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum, "Defence of the (Catholic) faith and assistance to the poor".

The order is a sovereign subject of international law, with its territory comprising two enclaves withing Rome: Palazzo Malta and Villa del Priorato di Malta, and one in Malta: Fort Saint Angelo.

Generally it is considered the smallest country in the world, although technically it is the order as an international organization that is sovereign over its territory. It should therefore be considered a dependent territory. However, as there are no separate administrative structures governing the territory (understandable given its size), the administration of the territory is completely within the order itself, unlike the situation of the Holy See State.

Citizenship and Passports

The constitution of the Order does not mention the term "citizen", it speaks only about "members". The question about the number of citizens is therefore a bit difficult to answer - the current number of members is about 12000, the Order extends limited protection to them in international relations, however the membership in the Order is generally not considered a citizenship by other countries. Countries not recognizing dual citizenship of their citizens do not consider the membership in the Order a citizenship of another country - e.g. Order members travelling to the USA do not need to declare their membership; Slovakia does not automatically strip Slovak citizenship from Order members etc.

The Order however issues internationally recognized passports. Diplomatic passports are issued only to the members of the Sovereign Council, to heads and members of Diplomatic Missions of the Order (as well as their spouse and minor children), and for those who are in charge of a special missions within the Sovereign Order of Malta. The validity of the passport is strictly linked to the duration of the assignment. Currently 400 diplomatic passports are in use. The numerous other members and volunteers of the Order are using travel documents of their own respective countries.

The Order only issues three ordinary passports, these are issued to:
  • The Grand Master
  • The Grand Commander
  • The Grand Chancellor

It could be therefore argued that the Order (as a country) has only three citizens. Currently each of them is also a citizen of another country.

History

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is the present-day continuation of the medieval Knights Hospitaller, with origins in the Fraternitas Hospitalaria hospital founded circa 1048 by merchants from the Duchy of Amalfi in the Muristan district of Jerusalem, Fatimid Caliphate, to provide medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Following the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade and the loss of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to the Mamluk Sultanate, it became a military order to protect Christians against Islamic persecution and was recognised as sovereign in 1113 by Pope Paschal II.

When the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the order settled in Cyprus, where it remained until 1310. In 1310, led by Grand Master Fra' Foulques de Villaret, the knights regrouped on the island of Rhodes. From there, the defense of the Christian world required the organization of a naval force; so the Order built a powerful fleet and sailed the eastern Mediterranean, fighting battles for the sake of Christendom, including Crusades in Syria and Egypt.

After six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were forced to surrender in 1523 and left Rhodes with military honours. The order remained without a territory of its own until 1530, when Grand Master Fra' Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle Adam took possession of the island of Malta, granted to the order by Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his mother Queen Joanna of Castile as monarchs of Sicily, with the approval of Pope Clement VII

From 1651 to 1665, the Order of Saint John ruled four islands in the Caribbean. On 21 May 1651, it acquired the islands of Saint Barthélemy, Saint Christopher, Saint Croix and Saint Martin. These were purchased from the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique which had just been dissolved. In 1665 the four islands were sold to the French Compagnie française des Indes occidentales.

In 1798, the order surrendered the Maltese islands to the French First Republic under Napoleon, following the French Revolution and the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars.

Following the French occupation of Malta, the knights were expelled from the territory. The Treaty of Amiens (1802) obliged the United Kingdom to evacuate Malta which was to be restored to a recreated Order of St. John, whose sovereignty was to be guaranteed by all of the major European powers, to be determined at the final peace. However, this was not to be because objections to the treaty quickly grew in the UK and the treaty was never implemented.

After having temporarily resided in Messina, Catania, and Ferrara, in 1834 the precursor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta settled definitively in Rome, buying the Magistral Palace in Via Condotti 68 and the Magistral Villa on the Aventine Hill. Italy recognized the independence of the Order territories in 1869.

An agreement with the Republic of Malta, signed in 1998 and ratified in 2001 transferred the Fort St Angelo in the city of Birgu to the Order. This made a significant expansion of the Order's territory. The fort is leased for 99 years but the document allows the Maltese Government to terminate it at any time after 50 years. By the bilateral treaty, no asylum may be granted by the Order and generally the Maltese law shall apply in the fort.

Status as a Country

The Order views itself as a sovereign international organization with diplomatic relation with other countries. It is therefore an example of an organization sovereign over a territory (similar to the Holy See).

Its status as an independent country is often disputed because as a Roman Catholic order, it is subordinate to the Roman Curia. However, the subordination is primarily in religious matters, the order has been given full sovereignty by Pope Paschal II in 1113. While the sovereignty could in theory be revoked by a pope (and the crisis in February 2017 shows that the Holy See does indeed exercise its authority over Order members), that would only end the existence of the Order as an entity of international law - and would make the Holy See sovereign over two countries, the Holy See State and the territory of the Maltese Order. All these facts make it clear that the territory of the Order is currently a sovereign country, and would remain a country even if the Order (as an organization) were somehow to lose its sovereignty - it would just come under the sovereignty of whoever controls the Order.

The Order is a member of the United Nations, Universal Postal Union (its postage stamps are highly appreciated by collectors), the International Telecommunication Union and several other international organizations. It maintains full embassies to 112 countries and numerous consulates.

The Order's military corps, three brigades, are stationed throughout Italy, liaisoned with the Italian Armed Forces.

The Order issues its own vehicle registration plates. However, there is no regulation concerning traffic rules on the Order's territory (elsewhere the vehicles are subject to the traffic rules of the country they drive in) - this makes the Order not only to be one of the few countries without maximum speed limit, but without any formal traffic rules at all (not even the side of the road to drive on is specified). While vehicles can (and do) enter Order's territory, its size and lack of roads make this issue only theoretical.
 
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