Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
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According to its official tradition, the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George is the oldest international Roman Catholic order of chivalry; in reality the early history is legendary and it actually emerged in the middle of the 16th century. It has an hereditary Grand Mastership which passed to the Infante D. Carlos of Bourbon & Farnese, later King Charles III of Spain, in 1731.
On 16 October 1759 Charles III abdicated the Grand Magistery to his second surviving son, Infante D. Ferdinand, to whom he had abdicated as King of the Two Sicilies ten days earlier. The position as XIth (and current) Grand Master is disputed between Prince Ferdinand Maria, Duke of Castro[1] and his cousin, Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria. Membership nearly reaches 2,300. The motto of the Order is In Hoc Signo Vinces.
[edit] History
The legendary origins of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George takes trace its origins to an apocryphal order founded by Constantine the Great.[2] Its incorporation as a Religious Order of the Roman Catholic Church hereditary in the House of Farnese and its heirs the Bourbons dates from the transfer to Francesco Farnese in 1698 and the Bull "Militantis Ecclesiae" of 1718.
[edit] Footnotes
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