Dames & Knights of Malta -- Know Anything About Them?

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I only heard about the Knights of Malta today in another thread that was discussing the Knights of Columbus.

Someone posted a picture of the Knights of Malta and I wistfully said that I wish there were a female equivalent. Someone else posted that there are women associated with the Knights of Malta.

I did a quick Google search and found out they are called Dames of the Knights of Malta.

If anyone has ever studied this group, can you post what you’ve learned? If you are part of them even better?

What little I was able to ascertain through a superficial search is that the Dames of Malta are

– " female members of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. I don’t know what that means.

– someone said that "Knights of Columbus are a fraternal order. (name removed by moderator) is actually an ecclesial knighthood. I don’t know what that means either. ( I don’t know a lot :D)

– I also found this Oath.

I’m curious as to why I never heard of them before, but I always hear of the Knights of Columbus. I take it they are not as popular?

If anyone has any more information regarding both the Knights and Dames of Malta, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
Ooooh, I’d never heard about the Dames of Malta until now, but I’d like to know more, meself. I’d wanted to join the Knights of Columbus, but I found out it’s a men-only group.
 
TrueLight said:
I only heard about the Knights of Malta today in another thread that was discussing the Knights of Columbus.

Someone posted a picture of the Knights of Malta and I wistfully said that I wish there were a female equivalent. Someone else posted that there are women associated with the Knights of Malta.

I did a quick Google search and found out they are called Dames of the Knights of Malta.

If anyone has ever studied this group, can you post what you’ve learned? If you are part of them even better?

What little I was able to ascertain through a superficial search is that the Dames of Malta are

– " female members of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. I don’t know what that means.

– someone said that "Knights of Columbus are a fraternal order. (name removed by moderator) is actually an ecclesial knighthood. I don’t know what that means either. ( I don’t know a lot :D)

– I also found this Oath.

I’m curious as to why I never heard of them before, but I always hear of the Knights of Columbus. I take it they are not as popular?

If anyone has any more information regarding both the Knights and Dames of Malta, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The Knights of Malta are an actual equestrian order going back to the Crusades, like the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the extinct Knights Templar. They are seriously knights (though I don’t believe they have done any kind of fighting as such for centuries). Being that, they are quite elite. Membership is by invitation only, and it’s generally the wealthy or well connected that get invited.

The Knights of Columbus on the other hand is a fraternal order for whom the term “knight” is sort of a self-consciously silly thing. At most we seriously aspire to the chivalric values of the knights of old, but we know at the end of the day we are just ordinary folks. It’s a lot easier to get into the Knights of Columbus and we are much bigger and able to do more in the world, though the Knights of Malta do a lot too. The two are really apples and oranges, and of course one can be a member of both.

It’s kind of unfortunate that none of the female equivalents of the Knights of Columbus have been able to get off the ground. I don’t know much about the Dames of the Knights Malta, how numerous or active they are.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
The Knights of Malta are an actual equestrian order going back to the Crusades, like the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the extinct Knights Templar. They are seriously knights (though they haven’t done any kind of fighting as such for centuries). As such they are quite elite. Membership is by invitation only, and it’s generally the wealthy or well connected that get invited.
Click to expand...
Oh!

The Knights of Columbus on the other hand is a fraternal order for whom the term “knight”
It’s kind of unfortunate that none of the female equivalents of the Knights of Columbus have been able to get off the ground. I don’t know much about the Dames of the Knights Malta, how numerous or active they are.
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Do you know the names of any of the Knights of Columbus women groups that never quite got off the ground?
 
TrueLight said:
Oh!

The Knights of Columbus on the other hand is a fraternal order for whom the term “knight”

Do you know the names of any of the Knights of Columbus women groups that never quite got off the ground?
Click to expand...
The womens’ group are the Columbiettes and are usually wives of KofC members. One of the secretaries at work is a member. According to her they don’t do much but support the men.
 
Joannm said:
The womens’ group are the Columbiettes and are usually wives of KofC members. One of the secretaries at work is a member. According to her they don’t do much but support the men.
Click to expand...
Ah I see.

Someone on CAF suggested that I should start a group.

I believe one should learn and observe how things work before jumping in and trying to organize such groups.
 
This is cheep and you’ve probably either already seen it or are an anti-Wikipedia person, but here’s some Wikipedia articles just for quick reference if anyone finds them useful.

The Knights of Malta

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Malta
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta

The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre

The Teutonic Knights (now purely religious)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Knights

The Order of St. Lazarus

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_St_Lazarus

The Knights Templar (extinct)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
 
Joannm said:
The womens’ group are the Columbiettes and are usually wives of KofC members. One of the secretaries at work is a member. According to her they don’t do much but support the men.
Click to expand...
The other one is the Catholic Daughters of the Americas.

When we were founding a new Knights of Columbus College Council a female friend of ours tried to get either a council of Columbiettes or Catholic Daughters started too but couldn’t get anyone in either group to respond to queries on how to do it and eventually gave up.
 
knightsofmalta.com/history/history.html

interesting info…

an anecdotal story

I am a member of the KoC and through my secular employment I met a member of the Knights of Malta on a charity drive on their part…I mentioned I was a KoC and he told me they are similar in that most of their current work is charity driven, but they also have vowed and pledged to defend the Holy Father even unto death, and that they would essentially do whatever asked to defend the Pope

now, I have no idea if this gentleman was embellishing or not, and he was surprisingly open with me when he found out I was a KoC
 
(from their website)

In the early 14th century the institutions of the Order and the knights who came to Rhodes from every corner of Europe were grouped according to the languages they spoke. There were initially seven groups of Langues (Tongues): Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon (Navarre), England (with Scotland and Ireland) and Germany. In 1492 Castille and Portugal split off from the Langue of Aragon and constituted the eighth Langue. Each Langue included Priories or Grand Priories, Bailiwicks and Commanderies.

(Clearly very European. And ancient. And as someone else remarked, elite)
 
TrueLight said:
Thanks.

Looking at all these pictures makes me wonder if there are people of color in any of these groups.
Click to expand...
Do there need to be? The whole knighthood thing is pretty European.

I imagine there are a few of course, and probably will be more in the future.
 
TrueLight said:
Someone posted a picture of the Knights of Malta and I wistfully said that I wish there were a female equivalent. Someone else posted that there are women associated with the Knights of Malta.
Click to expand...
It was the same person. I :D!
 
Aelred_Minor said:
The Knights of Malta are an actual equestrian order going back to the Crusades, like the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the extinct Knights Templar. They are seriously knights (though I don’t believe they have done any kind of fighting as such for centuries). Being that, they are quite elite. Membership is by invitation only, and it’s generally the wealthy or well connected that get invited.

The Knights of Columbus on the other hand is a fraternal order for whom the term “knight” is sort of a self-consciously silly thing. At most we seriously aspire to the chivalric values of the knights of old, but we know at the end of the day we are just ordinary folks. It’s a lot easier to get into the Knights of Columbus and we are much bigger and able to do more in the world, though the Knights of Malta do a lot too. The two are really apples and oranges, and of course one can be a member of both.

It’s kind of unfortunate that none of the female equivalents of the Knights of Columbus have been able to get off the ground. I don’t know much about the Dames of the Knights Malta, how numerous or active they are.
Click to expand...
Aelred, thanks for this detailed comparison.
 
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