What are the Knights of Malta in Relation to the Church?

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What are they in relation to the Church? Are they a religious order? A Society of Apostolic Life? Something else entirely? Their website is unclear.

*2) What do we mean by saying that it is a religious order?
The Order was born as a monastic community inspired by St. John the Baptist. This community, which was created by Amalfitan Merchants around 1050, ran a hospice providing care and shelter for pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 1113 it received formal acknowledgement as a religious Order from Pope Paschal II. Before the loss of the island of Malta (1798) most of the knights were religious, having taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Today, although some members of the Order are professed knights (having taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience), others have pronounced only the promise of obedience. Most of the Order’s 13,500 knights and dames are lay members. *

The same FAQ says nothing about governance by the Church/Holy See but only Chapter General, Governing Council, their internal constitutions and such things.

I know someone who is in formation with them who said, “I never thought I would ever be a member of an order.” I wondered to myself if this really were the case, if this organization is an order? In the few dealings I have had with members, and the few talks I have heard by their members, and reading about them, their relationship to the Church Church remains a mystery to me.

-Tim-
 
Good question.

The Knights of Malta do note,
The Knights of Malta
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According to the Constitution, the members of the Order of Malta are divided into three Classes.
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Members of the First Class are Knights of Justice, or Professed Knights, and the Professed Conventual Chaplains, who have made vows of “poverty, chastity and obedience aspiring to perfection according to the Gospel”. They are religious for all purposes of Canon Law but are not obliged to live in community
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The members of the Second Class, by virtue of the Promise of Obedience, are committed to living according to Christian principles and the inspiring principles of the Order.
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The Third Class consists of lay members who do not profess religious vows or the Promise, but who live according to the principles of the Church and the Order.
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Feb of last year they were recognized with an audience of the Holy Father.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI received a group of Knights and Dames of Malta today, as part of celebrations marking the 900th anniversary of the creation of their organization as a Sovereign Military Order under Papal protection. It was on the 15th of February, in the year 1113, that Pope Paschal II issued the Bull Pie Postulatio Voluntatis, by which he placed the newly created “hospitaller fraternity” of Jerusalem under the protection of the Church and gave it sovereign status, constituting it as an Order in church law, with the faculty freely to elect its superiors without interference from other lay or religious authorities.
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en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/02/09/pope_to_order_of_malta:_works_a_sign_of_christian_hope/en1-663372
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ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF MALTA
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Saturday, 9 February 2013
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The occasion that brings us together is the ninth centenary of the solemn privilege Pie Postulatio Voluntatis of 15 February 1113, by which Pope Paschal II placed the newly created “hospitaller fraternity” of Jerusalem, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, under the protection of the Church, and gave it sovereign status, constituting it as an Order in church law, with the faculty freely to elect its superiors without interference from other lay or religious authorities
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vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2013/february/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20130209_ordine-malta_en.html
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Thank you both. That clears up much, if not all of my question. 🙂

-Tim-
 
I am curious about this statement. Cardinals elect the pope and serve as the Pope’s advisors. Would you mind explaining how the leader of the (name removed by moderator) serves as an “equivalent to a cardinal”? Thank you!
 
quiet52 said:
I am curious about this statement. Cardinals elect the pope and serve as the Pope’s advisors. Would you mind explaining how the leader of the (name removed by moderator) serves as an “equivalent to a cardinal”? Thank you!
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He does not hold the office of cardinal, but holds precedence of honor just next to the cardinals.

From Wikipedia: Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the (name removed by moderator):
The Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta was the sovereign ruler of Malta 1530–1798, and asserts sovereign status to this day. The holder of the office received, ex officio, the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire from the Holy Roman Emperor in 1607 (as an honorary title, as the Prince and Grand Master was already a sovereign in his own right outside the Empire), and the style of His Most Eminent Highness from the Pope in 1630, recognizing his status as a Prince of the Church. In the Order of precedence in the Catholic Church, Fra’ Matthew ranks as the highest official after the cardinals, and is the only modern leader of an entity within the Catholic Church, in addition to the Pope, to be considered a sovereign monarch (historically, many (arch)bishops also had sovereign princely status).
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Elizium, that is very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post.

-Tim-
 
Some generic information in reply to previous posts:

The text of Pie Postulatio Voluntatis can be found here:

godwinxuereb.blogspot.com/2014/12/archives-of-order-1-papal-bull-of-pope.html

Regarding the Church, different (name removed by moderator) associations differ as far as Summorum Pontificum is concerned. Consider e.g. (name removed by moderator) in the USA being, more or less, in favour whereas (name removed by moderator) in Malta is against and doesn’t celebrate TLM at all:

pro-tridentina-malta.blogspot.com/2013/02/tridentine-mass-in-valletta-with.html
 
I don’t know a whole lot about them but as an interesting aside, I was in Rome last month on oblate business at Sant’Anselmo monastery (the Benedictine seat of the Abbot Primate and their teaching college) on the Aventine hill and the HQ of the Knights of Malta is their next door neighbour. In fact there were a couple of lay members staying at the monastery as they were learning about the Benedictine approach to obedience. They were both very nice gentlemen; one of them happened to speak pretty proficient French so we were able to chat a bit; we ate together in the refectory and were neighbours in the guesthouse.

The gate to their priory on the Aventine has the most spectacular view of the dome of St. Peter’s through the keyhole. It’s a very famous view, people queue up to see it.
 
The audio/podcast version of EWTN’s TV series The Military Orders and the Crusades includes several episodes about the Hospitallers/Knights of Malta. So go to EWTN’s Audio Library, and you can find out all sorts of things.

I liked the comparison of the Third Class knights with the Third Order versions of the Franciscans, Dominicans, et al.
 
Not only does the Grand Master hold precedence immediately after the cardinals (thus making him more senior than any other religious superior in the entire Church), but the Knights also have a Prelate, who is a bishop, who serves as religious superior of the chaplains (priests) of the Order…and in addition to this, the Holy Father appoints a Cardinal Patron who serves as the Holy See’s representative to this most illustrious order - currently Cardinal Burke.
 
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