The Modern Era
After temporary seats in Messina, Catania and Ferrara the Order finally established itself in 1834 in Rome, where it holds, extra-territorially, the Malta Palace at 68 Via Condotti and the Villa on the Aventine.
From 1805 the Order was ruled by Lieutenants, until in 1879 Pope Leo XIII restored the Grandmastership and the honours of a Cardinal attaching to it. Hospitaller work, the original work of the Order, became once again its main concern.
View of St. Peters Basilica from the Order's Palace on the Aventine Hill, in Rome.
Hospital train of the Grand priory of Bohemia and Austria in the first World War.
Grand Master Fra' Chigi visiting charitable works in the 1940's.
Fra' Angelo de Mojana at a pilgrimage in Lourdes.
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.
The activities of the Order have been further expanded under the rule of Grand Master Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna (1962-1988), who was succeeded by the Grand Master Fra' Andrew Bertie (1988-2008). In March 2008, after the death of Fra' Andrew Bertie, Prince and Grand Master Fra' Mathew Festing was elected 79th Grand Master.
The Order of Malta constitutes the sole unbroken continuation of the Order of the Hospital of St. John recognized in 1113. It alone is a religious Order of the Catholic Church and at the same time a Catholic Order of Knighthood.
It alone contains the governing nucleus of the professed Knights of justice, direct successors of its founders, from among whom the Grand Master and most of the members of the Sovereign Council are elected, and which is placed above the ranks of the lay Knights, grown numerous since the fall of Malta.