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2008-02-09 -Obits-
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Knights of Malta leader dies
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THE Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, a group which began as a Christian crusading military order more than 900 years ago, has died. Englishman Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, 78, died in a hospital yesterday in Rome, where the order has been based since 1834.
The order, whose full formal name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta, has more than 12,500 members and some 93,000 volunteers around the world. Today it is involved in humanitarian, medical and charity work around the world. It is a sovereign entity with its own passport and has diplomatic relations with 99 countries.
A spokesman said its number two, or Grand Commander, would run the order until new elections are held, probably in several months.
Bertie, who was addressed as "His Highness", was the first Englishman to be elected to the high post. Born in 1929, he was educated at Oxford and the University of London. He served in the Scots Guards and joined the order in 1956. He took solemn religious vows in 1981, according to a biography provided by the order.
The order traces its origins to about 1048 when merchants from the rich Marine Republic of Amalfi in Italy financed a hospital run by monks in Jerusalem to offer medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land and local non-Christian residents.
But the order later took on a military role during the first crusade and considers that its formal founding was in 1099 when it was involved in protecting Christian pilgrims at a time when the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as it was called, had no standing army.
After the fall of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, the order moved to Cyprus. A more permanent base was established in Rhodes, but the order was eventually defeated in a long siege by the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V offered Malta to the Knights for a yearly rent of one falcon.
The Knights took over the tiny island because its magnificent natural harbour offered protection for their fleet. They built huge ramparts and after beating off the Turkish siege of 1565, they built Valletta, decorating it with large palaces and richly decorated churches that are today some of Malta's most important tourist attractions.
Napoleon forced the Knights to leave Malta in 1798 and since 1834 their headquarters has been Rome, where they own a building near the Spanish Steps and a villa on the Aventine Hill. 
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Posted by Fred 2008-02-09 00:00||
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Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2008-02-09 00:29||
2008-02-09 00:29||
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Posted by 3dc 2008-02-09 01:34||
2008-02-09 01:34||
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