This website uses technical and assimilated cookies as well as user-profiling third party cookies in a grouped format to simplify online navigation and to protect the use of services. To find out more or to refuse consent to the use of one or any of the cookies, click here. Closing this banner, browsing this page or clicking on anything will be taken as consent to the use of cookies.
Sovereign Order of Malta
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
Order of Malta
About the Order of Malta
Upholding human dignity and caring for people in need
The Sovereign Order of Malta is one of the oldest institutions of Western and Christian civilisation.
Members & Structure
Knights of Malta
Constitutional Charter and Code
Spiritual commitment
Nuns of the Order
The Grand Master is elected for life from the Professed Knights by the Council Complete of State. According to the Constitution, as the religious Superior and Sovereign, he must fully dedicate himself to the development of the works of the Order and set an example of living by Christian principles to all the members…
Sovereign Council
Flags & Emblems
Seats of the Order of Malta
Magistral Palace
Magistral Villa
Magistral Archives and Library
Humanitarian & Medical Works
Hospitaller mission
Humanitarian, medical & social assistance
The Order of Malta is permanently present with medical, social and humanitarian projects in most countries in the world.
Aid for refugees
Disaster relief & prevention
Diseases & epidemics
Bethlehem's Hospital
Youth for Lebanon
Diplomatic Activities
Humanitarian Diplomacy
Linking diplomacy with aid
The diplomatic relations which the Sovereign Order of Malta enjoys exist to facilitate its humanitarian activities.
Speech of the Grand Master Fra' Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Sovereign Order of Malta
Latest interventions
Grand Master News
Order of Malta Publications
Mimic Orders
Over 900 years of history
The birth of the Order of St. John dates back to around 1048.
The Grand Masters
Ancient Langues of the Order
Names of the Order
1113 Papal Recognition
Orders of St John
Constitution and Code
Institutional appointments
Clarification Mimic Orders
: Speech of the Grand Master Fra' Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Sovereign Order of Malta
: Bushfires in Australia, the Hospitaller: "Order of Malta provides emergency relief"
: Credentials presented by Armenia, Georgia and Latvia
: Order of Malta in Australia makes bushfire appeal
: Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem intensifies antenatal checks with awareness campaigns in the region
: Grand Master Writes to Pope Francis on World Peace Day
: Malteser International and other aid agencies warn about the deterioration of food security in Haiti
: Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem: over 4,700 births in 2019. Nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit: the parents' joy becomes ours
: Grand Master's Christmas message
: Grand Master's Christmas Greetings at St. John Baptist Hospital in Rome
Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem: over 4,700 births in 2019. Nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit: the parents' joy becomes ours
Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem, run by the Order of Malta since 1990, is the only medical facility in the West Bank to offer a neonatal intensive care unit where premature babies, even only 23 weeks old, or those with congenital problems, can be treated with cutting-edge therapies.
Parents are followed here by specialised staff who help them cope with a process that can be very long and with uncertain outcome. "The most difficult aspect of our work is the anxiety about what could happen to our little ones," says Ishraf, one of the nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit. "The most delicate part," she adds, "is the relationship with the baby's parents. Our task is to reassure and comfort them even if we ourselves are very worried."
Take the case of Ayla, Alma and Lea, triplets born prematurely last May. At birth they weighed less than two kilogrammes each. The parents, both professionals at the Hebron University in Palestine, were terrified to even hold them, they seemed so small and fragile. The fear of becoming attached and then losing them had made them incapable of interacting with the babies, so a specialised team of social workers and psychologists gave them the necessary emotional support to create a bond with their infants.
"The best moment is when the doctors finally tell parents that their children are well and can leave the hospital. No one can imagine the joy we read in the eyes of these parents and we're lucky to be able to share this happiness with them, so that it also became ours!" another nurse in the hospital tells us.
This is exactly the case of the premature triplets: two were discharged in July and the third in August. Now they are at home with their parents. But the work of the neonatal intensive care unit continues, ready to receive other babies needing care and assistance.
With a death rate of under 1 percent, 4,700 babies were born in 2019 in the hospital in Bethlehem, just 700 metres from the Basilica of the Nativity.
Bushfires in Australia, the Hospitaller: "Order of Malta provides emergency relief"
Order of Malta in Australia makes bushfire appeal
Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem intensifies antenatal checks with awareness campaigns in the region
Malteser International and other aid agencies warn about the deterioration of food security in Haiti
Grand Master's Christmas Greetings at St. John Baptist Hospital in Rome
Saints & Blessed
Grand Commander
Grand Chancellor
Grand Hospitaller
Receiver of the Common Treasure
Order Pro Merito Melitensi
Magistral Library
1048 to present day
Magistral Palace, Via Condotti, 68 Rome - Italy
Tel. +39.06.67581.1 | [email protected]
For information on the activities of the Order of Malta in individual countries and how to participate:
Europe | Africa | America | Asia | Oceania
For information on history and bibliography pertaining to the Order of Malta: Magistral Archives and Library [email protected]
For information on the Order of Malta's stamps & coins: Magistral Post Office