Hospitallers+to+SMOM

__**After Malta**__ The order continued to exist in a diminished form and negotiated with European governments for a return to power. The Tsar of Russia gave the largest number of knights shelter in St. Petersburg and this gave rise to the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller and recognition within the Russian Imperial Orders. In 1798, following Napoleon's taking of Malta, the order was dispersed, but with a large number of refugee knights sheltering in St Petersburg, where they elected the Russian Emperor, Paul I as their Grand Master – a rival to Grand Master Ferdinand Hompesch, then held in disgrace. Hompesch abdicated in 1799, under pressure from the Austrian Court, leaving Paul as the de facto Grand Master. As Grand Master Paul I created, in addition to the Roman Catholic Grand Priory, a Russian tradition within the Hospitaller Order – the "Russian Grand Priory" of no less than 118 Commanderies dwarfing the rest of the Order, and open to all Christians. Paul's election as Grand Master was never ratified under Roman Catholic Canon law, and the Russian Priory was a de facto rather than a de jure part of the Roman Catholic Order. By the early 1800s, the order had been severely weakened by the loss of its priories throughout Europe. Only 10% of the order's income came from traditional sources in Europe, with the remaining 90% being generated by the Russian Grand Priory until 1810. This was partly reflected in the government of the Order being under Lieutenants, rather than Grand Masters in the period 1805 to 1879, when Pope Leo XIII restored a Grand Master to the order. This signalled the renewal of the order's fortunes as a humanitarian and religious organization. Hospitaller work, the original work of the order, became once again its main concern. The hospital and welfare activities, undertaken on a considerable scale in World War I, were greatly intensified and expanded in World War II under the Grand Master Fra' Ludovico Chigi della Rovere Albani (Grand Master 1931-1951).

__**Sovereign Military Order of Malta**__ In 1834, the revived Order established a new headquarters in Rome. The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, better known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), remains a Roman Catholic religious order which claims sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations, although its claims of sovereignty are disputed by a handful of scholars. //[from Wikipedia extracts]//

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is currently [in 2013] celebrating 900 years of being an Order. Click on the banner below to go to their site: SMOM works diplomatically through 102 countries. Its relief organisation - Malteser International - has 25 Associations and Priories, set up similar to the Venerable Order. Click on the banner below to visit their site: