Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller
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Brother Gerard created the Order of St John of Jerusalem as a distinctive Order from the previous Benedictine establishment of Hospitallers. It provided medical care and protection for pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. After the success of the First Crusade, it became an independent monastic Order, and then as circumstances demanded grafted on a military identity, to become an Order of Knights. The Home or Priory of the Order moved to Rhodes in 1312, where it ruled as a sovereign power, then to Malta in 1530 as a sovereign/vassal power.
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[edit] 17th Century
In 1697, the Corps des Pages was established in St. Petersburg as a school for the royal court and to promote chivalric standards among the Russian nobility. [1]
In 1698, Peter the Great sent a delegation to Malta under Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev, to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet. Sheremetev also investigated the possiblity of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base. [2]
From this time forward, Russian volunteers served on the Order's ships, and members of the Russian gentry became Knights of the Order.
[edit] 18th Century
The special relationship between the Knights of Malta and the crown of Russia continued into the 18th century.
From 1766 to 1769, Catherine the Great sent many distinguished Russian naval officers for special training with the Knights of Malta. [3]
From 1772 to 1773, Grand Master Pinto sent Baillif Sagramoso as an ambassador to Russia, with the aim of maintaining the Order's cordial relationship with the northern giant.
In 1789, Bailiff Count Giulio Renato de Litta, while on an official visit from the Knights of Malta, assisted with the reorganization of Russia's Baltic Fleet, and later served as a commander with the Russian Imperial Navy in the war against Sweden. [4]
In 1782, Empress Catherine sent her son Grand Duke Paul to visit Grand Master De Rohan as a gesture of her respect and admiration. [5] The next year, she sent Count Psaro as an envoy to visit De Rohan in Malta to solidify her relationship with the Knights of Malta, and further Russian influence in the Mediterranean.
In 1797, Paul I, Emperor of Russia signed a Treaty with the Order of Malta, establishing a Roman Catholic Grand Priory of 10 Commanderies in Russia in compensation for the loss of income from the former Polish Grand Priory (of 6 Commanderies), which lay in the Polish territory annexed by Russia.
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 Grand Master to 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 the Order was under the obedience of the Roman Catholic Church, Paul I as an Orthodox Christian and of another obedience could never be accepted as Grand Master under Roman Catholic Canon law. However, Paul I of Russia, without question, was Grand Master from the point of view of International Law, and accepted as so, by the community of nations.
As De-facto Grand Master, in addition to the Roman Catholic Grand Priory, Paul I created a Russian tradition within the Hospitaller Order - the "Russian Grand Priory" of no less than 118 Commanderies dwarfing the rest of the Order. The Priory was open to all Christians - which whilst it could not be accepted as a canonical part of the Roman Catholic Order, it was never-the-less a de-facto part of the ancient Order (the Roman Catholic HQ was only too happy to receive money from the Russian Grand Priory from 1798 to 1810).
[edit] 19th Century - Bolshevik Revolution of 1917
In 1802, the mission of the Corps des Pages was broadened to that of a military academy, based on the ideals of the Order of St John. In 1810, the school was moved to the palace of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem. It continued at this location in St. Petersburg for over one hundred years (until the revolution). [6]
Following Imperial Decrees of Alexander I of Russia in 1810/1811, a fiscal and legal separation of the Russian tradition of St John from the main Roman Catholic HQ was created (The main motive of the Decrees was undoubtedly to gain the property and money of the Russian branch for Alexander's war chest in his struggle against Napoleon). As early as May 1802, Lord St. Helens (British Minister to the Court of Russia) informed the Hon. Arthur Paget (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Austria) that the Russian Emperor was going to make the Russian Priory "an independent and separate Community", which would have stripped "perhaps nine-tenths of the Revenues that constituted the Order’s principal income!" Although the Emperor did not take this action in 1802, by 1810, necessity forced the independence. The Russian Order from 1810, was akin to the German Johanniter Order, a Johannine tradition, but legally separate.
Some authors have claimed that Emperor Alexander I abolished the Russian Grand Priory and/or the Order based on Decree for 1810, which has been badly misread, misleading even Russian authors such as V.A. Durov. In fact the Decree of 1810 Ukase 24.134 - 26 February 1810, which removed the Order’s property, specifically states that the Order is still to continue, and that "All the expenses connected with the maintenance and running of the Order should be paid from the State Treasury" cited from the Ukase.
The Court Almanacs following that period still listed the Order of St John, listing as "protecteur" Alexandre Pavlovitch. In the 1813 Almanac the total membership of the Russian Grand Priory was 853, and the Catholic Grand Priory numbered 152. A further 21 members of the Order resided in Russia, providing in excess of a 1000 members.
A further decree was issued in 1817 forbidding Army Officers from wearing their decorations because they received them from outside of Russia from a foreign Bailiff of the Roman Catholic Order, which no longer officially existed in Russia by then. No such decree was ever issued concerning members of the non-Roman Catholic Russian Grand Priory, and in fact the reverse was true.
One of the leading French Bailiffs of the Military Order of Malta, who had studied the Russian tradition provided a footnote in his book; "Nevertheless, the Tsars have exceptionally authorised the eldest sons of the descendants of hereditary commanders to wear the decorations. Such an authorisation can be cited in the military service records of 19 October 1867. One can also find the name of Demidoff, in his quality as hereditary commander in the Almanach de Gotha (1885, p. 467 and 1923, p. 556) and in the Almanach de St Petersbourg, 1913/14 p. 178" Pierredon, Count Marie Henri Thierry Michel de, Histoire Politique de l'Ordre Souverain de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem, (Ordre de Malte) de 1789 à 1955, Vol 2, page 197.
In the Division of Petitions of His Imperial Majesty's Chancery, for 1912, Record No. 96803 permission is given to Count Alexander Vladimirovitch Armfeldt to wear the insignia of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, with the transfer of that right, after his death, to his son.
Portraits of Russian Nobles wearing the Order of St John can be found throughout the 19th Century, with listings of members found in the Court Almanacs from the early 1800s through to the 20th Century.
Other evidence of the Order's existence in Russia throughout the 19th Century on into the 20th Century is given by various publications contemporary to that period. For example;
• Alzog, The Reverend Dr Johannes Baptist. Translated by The Reverend Dr F.J. Pabisch and the Reverend Thomas S. Byrne, Manual of Universal Church History, R. Clarke & Co. Cincinnati Ohio, 1874 Volume II.
• Brière, L. de la. a Knight of Malta, writing in L'Ordre de Malte, le Passé, le Présent, Paris, 1897.
• Burke, Sir Bernard (ed). The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of all Nations. Hurst and Blackett, London 1858.
• Chambers's Encyclopædia, W. and R Chambers, London 1863, Vol V. Page 729.
• Karnovich, Eugeme, Knights of Malta in Russia, St Petersburg, 1880.
• Leiber, Francis (Editor) Encyclopædia Americana, Carey and Lea, Philadelphia, 1832. Volume XI.
• Loumyer, Jean Francis Nicholas, Histoire, Costumes et Decorations de tous les Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, Brussels Auguste Wahlen 1844.
• Magney C de, Recueil Historique des Ordres de Chevalerie, Paris 1843.
• Maigne, W. Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Ordres de Chevalerie, Paris 1861.
• Romanoff, Grand Duke Nicolas Mikhailovitch, Portraits Russes, St. Petersburg; Tome I, Fascicle 1, Fascicle 2, Fascicle 3, Fascicle 4, 1905, Tome II, Fascicle 1, Fascicle 2, Fascicle 3, Fascicle 4, 1906, Tome III, Fascicle 1, Fascicle 2, Fascicle 3, Fascicle 4, 1907, Tome IV Fascicle 1, Fascicle 2, Fascicle 3, Fascicle 4, 1908, Tome V Fascicle 1, Fascicle 2, Fascicle 3, Fascicle 4, 1909.
• Perrot, Aristide-Michel. Collection Historique des Ordres de Chevaleric Civils et Militaires. Chez Aime André. Libraire-Éditeur, Quai des Augustins, N. 59. Paris. 1820.
• Yate, Arthur C, The Future of Rhodes, article in the Journal of the Central Asian Society Vol. I, 1914 Part II, The Central Asian Society, London 1914.
Ref: http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/oosj/yate2.htm used with permission.
[edit] 20th - 21st Centuries
He wore the Imperial Orders of St. Andrew and St. John of Jerusalem in this photograph.
This Russian Hospitaller tradition of St John continued within the Russian Empire, and then into Exile following the Revolution in 1917. On 24th June 1928, a group of 12 Russian Hereditary Commanders met in Paris to re-establish the activities of the Russian Grand Priory. They were supported by three other Russian Nobles who were aspirants and admitted as Knights, and a Hereditary Commander of the Catholic Grand Priory of Russia. They came under the leadership of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch to 1933, and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovitch to 1956, both holding the title of "Grand Prior". In 1939, Grand Duke Andrei and the Council agreed to the creation of a Priory in Denmark; the Priory of "Dacia". On the 9 December 1953, the Hereditary Commanders held a reunion in Paris and drew up a Constitution for the Russian Grand Priory in exile. In February 1955, the exilic Grand Priory based in Paris was registered as a Foreign Association under French Law as "The Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem".
Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovitch became the "Protector" to the Paris group in 1956, but refused the title of Grand Prior. Commander Nicholas Tchirikoff became the Dean of the Union until 1974. Prince Nikita Troubetzkoy became the remaining member of the Council, which effectively signalled the end of the formal Paris group.
In 1958, a working title was adopted; "Union des Descendants des Commandeurs Hereditaires et Chevaliers du Grand Prieure Russe de l'Ordre de St Jean de Jerusalem". Although by 1975, with the death of the secretary, the original leadership had died out and the jurisdiction of the Paris Group came to a definite legal end; it is asserted that the tradition has been maintained by the Priory of Dacia, (which was acknowledged as a legal part of the Union) and also by a number of descendants of the Hereditary Commanders.
Paul I had created under Russian Laws Family Commanders of the Russian Grand Priory with Hereditary Rights. It is the descendants of these Commanders who have, with the support of members of the Imperial family, continued that Russian tradition in exile. In the latter days of the Empire and into exile, these were known as "Hereditary Commanders". The Commanders organised within the "Russian Grand Priory", a corporate organisation which existed under various names; “Association of Hereditary Commanders” (1928), “Russian Philanthropic Association of the descendants of the hereditary commanders of Sovereign the Order of Malta” (1929-1932), "Union des Commandeurs Hereditaires et Chevaliers du Grand Prieure Russe de l'Ordre de St Jean de Jerusalem" (1957-1958) and the longer “Union” title given above (1958-1975). Today various groups claim to be the continuation of the Russian Priory. In terms of verifiable evidence, papers housed in the National Archive "Rigsarchivet" in Copenhagen Arkiv nr: 10266. Jvf. RA. Priv. ark. c. litra P nr. 1006-1, support the view, that the Priory of Dacia was a legal part of the Paris Group.
[edit] Self Styled / Mimic Orders
The history of the survival of this tradition has been complicated by various Mimic Orders. The large passage fees (alleged in some cases to be in the region of $50,000) collected by the American Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the early 1950s may well have tempted Charles Pichel to create his own "Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller" in 1956. Pichel avoided the problems of being an imitation of "SMOM" by giving his organization a mythical history by claiming the American organization he led was founded by Russian Hereditary Commanders living in, or visiting, the USA and dated to 1908; a spurious claim, but which never-the-less misled many including some academics. In truth, the foundation of his organisation had no connection to the genuine Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller. Once created, the attraction of Russian Nobles into membership of Pichel’s "Order" lent some credence to his claims. This organisation and others have led to scores of other self-styled Orders. Two offshoots of the Pichel Order were successful in gaining the backing of two exiled Monarchs, the late King Peter II of Yugoslavia, and King Michael of Romania.
[edit] Reference
- This article was originally expanded from an original text; http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/oosj/rgporg.htm
