History of the Order, from Jerusalem to Malta
The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to start with their full name, belong to a religious order founded in Jerusalem after the city was taken by the Crusaders in the 11th century. At the time of its foundation, the order was established to welcome and accommodate pilgrims in the Holy City, as well as to care for them in the event of injury or illness, hence the name "hospitaler brothers" sometimes used. This religious order soon took on a military function: as early as 1121, the Knights of St. John took on the task of protecting pilgrims with their weapons against Saracen attacks. The order thus became a military power under papal control, while retaining its original hospitable role.
Following Saladin's capture of Jerusalem (1188), the Hospitallers withdrew to Saint-Jean-d'Acre, before finally being expelled from the Holy Land along with all the other crusaders (1291). The order settled for a few years on the island of Cyprus, before conquering Rhodes and establishing its headquarters in the Byzantine city (1309). In the following years, the Knights of Rhodes waged a relentless sea war and took possession of other Dodecanese islands, where they fortified existing Byzantine castles, as at the kastro of Leros, or erected new defensive buildings, as at the citadel Neratzia on Kos.
The Knights of the Order of St. John enjoyed a prosperous two centuries of domination over Rhodes. They quickly acquired autonomy and then sovereignty, which enabled them to mint coins. The Order was already one of the most powerful in Christendom when it took advantage of the fall of the Templars, another major religious and military order. In 1312, Pope Clement V transferred much of the property of the disgraced Order of the Temple to the Knights of Rhodes, whose power and wealth continued to grow. The majesty of the Grand Master's Palace and the inns in the Rue des Chevaliers still bear witness to this grandeur today.
But Ottoman attacks continued unabated until 1522, when the city of Rhodes fell under the yoke of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his 200,000 men. After briefly retreating to Crete and then wandering Europe, the defeated order was reconstituted on Malta in 1530, thanks to a generous (if self-serving) gift from Emperor Charles V, who ceded the island to them. The former Knights of Rhodes took the name Knights of Malta and continued to fight at sea. The war of conquest on land was laid to rest, to be replaced by a defensive naval strategy against the Ottoman fleets and, increasingly, by a new function of maritime policing in the Mediterranean, a pretext soon abandoned to better supplant privateers and pirates in the region's lucrative trades.
It was at this time, in particular, that the Knights of Malta developed their economic and naval power by taking over the island's already well-established slave trade. For a little over two centuries, the Order enjoyed a period of relative calm and great wealth, based on an unprecedented system of slavery and brigandage at sea, known as corso. On the eve of the French Revolution, Malta was at the heart of the Mediterranean slave trade, with the Knights reaping all the benefits. But the fall of the French monarchy heralded a turbulent era for the Order, which gradually lost its privileges and French possessions.
In 1798, on his way to Egypt, General Bonaparte invaded Malta and obtained the abdication of Grand Master Hompesch. Russian Tsar Paul I presented himself as protector of the Order and welcomed the rejected Knights to St. Petersburg, Russia. Although Orthodox and married, the Tsar was elected Grand Master for a few years, before his successor quickly abandoned the Grand Mastership. This marked the end of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem as it had existed since its foundation in the 11th century.
During the 19th century, religious and charitable associations claiming to be members of the Order sprang up throughout Europe, but it wasn't until 1879 that the Pope approved its reconstitution, renaming it the Sovereign Order of Malta and establishing its headquarters in Rome. Since then, the Order of Malta has been active in various humanitarian causes, notably the fight against leprosy, and has a permanent observer seat at the UN and in European bodies.
Organization and rules of the Order
Originally, Hospitallers were obliged to follow the rule of Saint Augustine, vowing poverty, chastity and obedience. With the significant enrichment of the order and certain Knights over the centuries, and the addition of new rules, successive Grand Masters reworked and redefined the imperatives to which religious were subject. The structure of the order and its internal organization, however, have remained virtually unchanged over time.
Rapidly becoming a military order, the order comprises three categories of brothers. The Knights or Soldier-Brothers, the armed arm of the order, are responsible for military functions. They must be descended from the European aristocracy and must prove at least 16 quarters of nobility, for the Knights of Justice, or distinguish themselves by exceptional merit, for the Knights of Grace. Priests or Brother Chaplains officiate and serve the Order's churches. They are not necessarily noble, but represent the religious and spiritual arm of the hierarchy. Finally, the sergeants-at-arms, or Brothers-servants, of commoner origin, care for the sick in peacetime and the wounded in battle, and are called upon to take up arms if necessary.
The Brothers, who hail from the major Catholic countries of Europe, are divided into seven distinct linguistic groups, or "Languages", who share power in their respective Auberges. In Rhodes, for example, there are the Inns of the Languages of Provence, Auvergne, France, Germany, Italy, England and Spain (for a time subdivided into the Languages of Aragon and Castile). The language common to all is Latin in writing, and French in speech.
The Langue de France, supported by the Langue d'Auvergne and the Langue de Provence, is in the majority: of the 19 Grand Masters who succeeded each other during the Rhodian period, 14 were French. The Grand Master is elected for life, dominates the order's hierarchical pyramid and holds the same ecclesiastical rank as a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
Living the medieval city today
When the Hospitallers invaded Rhodes, the Byzantine city comprised three fortified zones, which were preserved by the Knights: to the north, the kastro, castrum or collachio, became the center of power; to the south, the burgus was inhabited by the predominantly Greek and Orthodox Rhodian population; to the east, the giudecca was populated by the Jewish community of Rhodes, one of the oldest Israelite communities in Greece, as witnessed today by the Kahal Shalom synagogue museum.
After the great siege of 1480 and the almost victorious invasion attempt by Ottoman forces, Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson decided to reinforce and extend the existing fortifications. New gates were erected at the entrances to the redesigned city, piercing walls up to 12 meters thick. Each Auberge or Langue was charged with guarding and defending a section of these fortifications. Today, you can't help but admire this impressive structure, which seems to spring up everywhere as you stroll through the old town. A tour of the ramparts reveals the full extent of the defensive system put in place to ensure the city's safety.
More generally, Pierre d'Aubusson reviewed the city's urban organization. The movement of Greeks out of the castrum and into the burgus, which had already begun with the arrival of the Hospitallers, accelerated: the two areas were separated by an inner wall and the market street, which more or less followed the layout of today's Rue Sokratous. The expropriated local Greek population also had to abandon a number of Byzantine churches, which had been transformed into Catholic places of worship. They founded new Orthodox churches in the burgus. Today, 27 churches remain from this period, some in ruins.
In the castrum, the Auberges de l'Ordre (Inns of the Order) were built one after the other in the Rue des Chevaliers or Rue Ippoton, the central place of power. From west to east, you can still admire : the Grand Master's Palace and the ruins of Saint-Jean church, the Order's main place of worship, the Auberges de Provence and d'Espagne facing each other, the Auberge de France and its Sainte-Trinité chapel, the Auberge d'Italie opposite the Hôpital des Chevaliers, now home to the Musée archéologique and finally, at the eastern end, the Notre-Dame du Château cathedral with, on Place Mousson, the Auberge d'Angleterre and, a little further back, the Auberge d'Auvergne. Today, the Auberge d'Allemagne has disappeared and some of these historic buildings have been transformed into museums that can be visited, even if they are largely occupied by various administrations. The French Consulate in Rhodes, for example, is still housed in the original Auberge de France.
To fully experience the unique atmosphere that still reigns in the medieval city, the best time to visit is at dawn or late at night, when the souvenir stores are closed and most tourists have returned to the new town outside the fortifications. If your budget allows, the best option is to stay in one of the medieval buildings that have been renovated and turned into charming hotels. There's no shortage of addresses, but Avalon Boutique Hotel is well hidden behind the Rue des Chevaliers, which regains its convent-like silence after dark. A pleasant café is open to all, residents and non-residents alike, in the hotel's inner courtyard, offering a moment out of time and away from the hustle and bustle of daytime life.
For a break in a place steeped in medieval history, you can also stop off at Café Auvergne, in the shade of a gigantic plane tree planted in the courtyard of the Auberge d'Auvergne. It's an opportunity to taste a local grape variety, mandilaria, sometimes called amorgiano. The CAIR vineyards produce a dry red, a small table wine that can be enjoyed in the evening: opt for a Chevalier de Rhodes, to take the theme to the bottle. Last but not least, a not-to-be-missed event brings the age of the Knights back to life every year: the Medieval Rose Festival offers concerts, shows, brass bands and medieval festivities over the course of a unique weekend. An event not to be missed.
