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CliffClaven Says: As a sovereign entity, the SMOM appoints representatives to many international organisations. It has Permanent Observer status at the United Nations and is often involved in the work of various UN agencies. The photograph shows the Order’s Permanent Observer to the United...
Extraterritorial in Via Condotti
CliffClaven Says: After their expulsion from the Holy Land, the Knights of St John settled briefly in Cyprus before moving to Rhodes. When they lost the island after a lengthy Ottoman siege in 1523, they moved to Malta, where they stayed for nearly three centuries before being ousted by...
CliffClaven Says: His Most Eminent Highness Fra Andrew Bertie is the 78th Prince and Grand Master of the SMOM since the Order was founded just over 900 years ago. He was born in England, of aristocratic descent, in 1929. He served as an officer in the Scots Guards and subsequently taught...
CliffClaven Says: If you thought Monaco was small, wait until you see the Order of Malta’s territory in Rome. You can walk right round the outside of the building in Via Condotti in a couple of minutes. And in fact you might even walk right past the building without noticing it, especially if...
CliffClaven Says: The traditional date of the founding of the Order of the Knights of St John is 1099. According to the story, a group of merchants obtained permission from the Caliph of Egypt to build a church and hospital in Jerusalem to care for pilgrims of any faith or race. The monastic...
CliffClaven Says: It’s hard to find a rarer vehicle number plate than those of the SMOM in Rome. Of course, if you walk through the courtyard of the Palazzo di Malta, you may see two or three vehicles with SMOM plates. And if he’s not on one of his frequent courtesy calls to the Vatican or...
CliffClaven Says: No, there isn't an airline with that name. And they can't call it Air Malta since that is the national carrier of the island republic in the Mediterranean. The symbol of the Order has nevertheless appeared on many aircraft over the years. War, famine, humanitarian crisis:...
Poste Magistrali - SMOM postal authority
CliffClaven Says: Stamps are about the only thing you can buy at the Palazzo di Malta. The SMOM probably has the smallest postal service in the world. As far as old Cliffie could see, the whole system has only two boxes for posting mail. The Order’s post office, round the corner from the main...
CliffClaven Says: There are neverending arguments about just how “sovereign” the SMOM is, and whether it can really claim to be a “country” when it has no territory apart from a couple of buildings in Rome. But there can be no arguing that the Order really does exist. What you have to be...
CliffClaven Says: If you are in one of the world’s hotspots, you can be fairly certain to find the Order of Malta providing medical care and comfort. For many years the Order has been providing aid to Afghanistan, and in Kosovo at the end of the 1990s the Order established field hospitals to...
CliffClaven Says: Go back to the early days of the Knights of St John, and this is where you would certainly have met them. The Krak des Chevaliers is probably the most famous, and certainly the most impressive, crusader castle. The crusaders built fortresses and castles all over the lands...
CliffClaven Says: And why is this page under Latvia? Well, old Cliffie didn't want to put it under the island republic in the Mediterranean. And there is a place called Malta in Latvia. And Latvia is the only one of the 25 Member States of the European Union which old Cliffie hasn't...
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There are neverending arguments about just how “sovereign” the SMOM is, and whether it can really claim to be a “country” when it has no territory apart from a...
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It's not often you bump into a Prince and Grand Master. Old Cliffie was at the headquarters in Rome of the Order of Malta - or to give the Order its full title, the Sovereign Military Hospitaller...
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