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The Knights of St. John
The Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to
give its full name, was originally founded in about 1085 as
a community of monks, set up to nurse Christians who fell
ill while on pilgrimage in the Holy Land.
As pilgrims came increasingly under attack from the Infidel,
they needed physical protection rather than cures for minor
ailments, and young knights were recruited specifically to
provide that protection. These knights were drawn from noble
families in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal and England.
As powerful as the knights had become, the rising tide of
Islam eventually drove them out of the Holy Land. They regrouped
on the island of Cyprus, then Rhodes, turning it into a stronghold
and from there sailed in their fleet of galleys to continuously
attack the Infidel.
In 1522 sultan Suleiman the Magnificient attacked Rhodes
with a fleet of 400 ships and 140,000 men. After six months
of siege, the Knights of the Order of St. John were defeated
and forced to leave Rhodes with all their possessions.
The Spanish king, Charles V granted them the island of Malta
in the year 1530. Malta with its 12,000 inhabitants was from
this time on under the sovereignty of the Order of St. John.
The Great Siege of 1565
In May 1565 the Ottoman armada, led by General Pasha, landed
on Malta with 138 galleys and 40,000 of the best troops the
Sultan could muster. For Jean Parisot de la Valette, the French
Grandmaster of the the Order of St. John at that time with
his 8,500 men, 700 of them Knights of the Order, the odds
of winning what became known as the Great Siege looked terrible.
He asked Sicily and Spain for any reinforcements they could
spare.
The Ottomans first attacked Fort St. Elmo, the newly built
fortress that guarded the entrance to the Grand Harbour. The
Turks calculated that they could capture the fort within three
days of siege, but the fort with its star-shaped design and
its defenders withstood the first attacks. The defending Knights,
not more than 60 and a few hundred men, doubted that they
would withstand a secound assault and sent a message to the
Grand Master. La Valette replied that if necessary, he would
personally come to take over St. Elmo's defence.
After a very hard battle, a Turkish flag was run up over
the fort on 23 June 1565. Only a handful of the fort's garrison
survived the assault. Some say there were nine Knights, who
were never heard of again, and five Maltese, who swam to safety
across Grand Harbour.
The troops of the Order gathered in the fortified town of
Birgu (Vittoriosa), surrounded by the Ottomans. While the
Knights withstood several attacks over the next several weeks,
General Pasha's resources and ammunition were diminishing.
When, on September 7, 28 Spanish ships and approximately 8,000
soldiers arrived on Malta, the Ottoman General was forced
to gather his survivors and flee.
This Victory dealt a fatal blow to the Ottoman Empire's territorial
ambitions and Grand master La Valette became Europe's celebrated
hero. He strengthened Malta's defence and ordered the building
of the town of Valletta.
The Knights of St. John Today
The order is still a powerful force. It has 11,000 Roman
Catholic members spread around the globe and co-operates with
many other Christian orders, such as the Catholic "Malteser
Hiflsdienst" and the Protestant "Johanniterorden"
in Germany. Its modern mission is purely humanitarian, from
the running of refugee camps, to caring for children in South
African slums. It has leprosy hospitals in Africa and Asia
and, quite appropriately, a maternity clinic in Betlehem.
It also runs blood banks and despatches field hospitals to
disaster areas.
Jan Bottenberg
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