Knights Hospitaller

The Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), also known as Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller, and the Hospitallers, was the name of the precedent medieval military organisation of the contemporary Sovereign Military Order of Malta, one of the most prominent of the Roman Catholic military orders and still today a sovereign subject of international law. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name.

The Hospitallers probably arose as a group of individuals associated with an Amalfitan hospital in the Muristan district of Jerusalem, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and founded around 1023 to provide care for sick, poor or injured pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thom's order and its hospital. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the organisation became a religious and military order under its own Papal charter, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land. Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the knights operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign, and later from Malta, where they administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily. The Hospitallers were the smallest group ever to colonise parts of the Americas; at one point in the mid-17th century, they acquired four Caribbean islands, which they turned over to the French and Dutch in the 1660s.

Knights of Malta (disambiguation)

The Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller were a Western Christian military order during the Middle Ages.

Knights of Malta may also refer to:

See also

Malta

Coordinates: 35°53′N 14°30′E / 35.883°N 14.500°E / 35.883; 14.500

Malta (ⁱ/ˈmɒltə/; Maltese: [ˈmɐltɐ]), officially the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European island country comprising an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Italy, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. The country covers just over 316 km² (122 sq mi), with a population of just under 450,000 (despite an extensive emigration programme since the Second World War), making it one of the world's smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km², is the smallest national capital in the European Union. Malta has two official languages: Maltese and English.

Malta's location has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, and a succession of powers, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Moors, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French and British, have ruled the islands.

Malta (Amtrak station)

Malta, Montana is a station stop for the Amtrak Empire Builder in Malta, Montana. The station, platform, and parking are owned by BNSF Railway.

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Malta (river)

The Malta is a river of Latvia, 105 kilometres long.

See also

Coordinates: 56°12′36″N 27°22′51″E / 56.21000°N 27.38083°E / 56.21000; 27.38083