COVER N. 540 - SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM, OF RHODES AND MALTA

Postmark: Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta -  Poste Magistrali . Giorno di emissione - 30º Anniversario Relazoni Diplomatiche con la Republica di Bulgaria 11.11.2024

Posted on the 11th November; Received on the 5th December 2024

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It is amazing how ignorant one can still be in a world where information is constantly colliding with our sensitive cells as if we were but a passive receiver of something I would call "infonemae", elementary particles of information.

I have heard of the Order of Malta before. I have been to Malta. I knew both had to be obviously linked. But I never cared to dig further. And I should have.... 

If I had done it, I would not have made a fool of myself when I thanked Eric for the great cover he so kindly sent me from the palace where the Order has the Seat of its Government - The Magistral Palace - which in conjunction with another historic building - the Magistral Vila - both located in Rome, Italy, and the upper part of  fort St. Angelo,  in Birgu, Malta,  in  practice coincide with its sovereign territory, although the order, in spite of having observer status at the UN,  cannot be considered as a state by itself... 

In truth, when I opened up my letterbox and saw a cover with a beautiful stamp bearing a legend that contained the word "Malta" and  two flags, one which I immediately recognised as the Bulgarian flag and the other I mistook for the Maltese flag, which I knew to be red and white, I thought to myself "Nice. It has been a while since I got mail from Malta and on top of that it's looks like a joint issue, great!"

So I wrote Eric a quick note (well not so quick for the message bounced a couple of times, I know not why), thanking him for my Maltese cover, and telling him how much I was happy to have it.

As usual, Eric answered me promptly and made me look again with due attention and a strongly blushed face to the cover he had so kindly sent me and which I had completely overlooked in detail....

And so I turned to the usual sources of information, and gathered that the origins of the Order of Malta, or in full, the  Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta goes back to the time of the crusades (well, that much I suspected, even before I confirmed it....), more precisely the 1st crusade, when, in 1099, the Knights Hospitaller order was founded, of which it claims to be the rightful successor.

The connection of the Order, which at present mostly acts in the field of international humanitarian assistance, with Malta dates back to 1530, when possession of the Mediterranean Island was granted to the Order by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

There it would be headquartered for almost  270 years until, in 1798, Napoleon, on his way to the Egypt campaign, occupied the Island, which would remain in French possession for two years, until 1980.

Expelled by the French occupants, the order members were scattered throughout Europe, although the official recognition of the loss of Malta by the Order  would only come in the Congress of Vienna of 1815, which lay the bases for modern day Europe (well, we all know what ensued next ….).

In 1834 the Seat of the Order was definitively moved from Ferrara where it had been since 1826 to Rome, where it stands to the present day in the already mentioned Magistral Palace.

Within the prerogatives of its rather uncommon international juridical status, the Order of Malta can and does issue currency and stamps, the later being usable for correspondence franking to 58 countries, (Portugal included) under bi-lateral postal agreements, I suppose. The operational side of the services is carried out by Poste Italiane, under agreement.

As a side note, Eric mentioned that France does not have a postal agreement with the Order, and I suspect that Napoleon is to be blamed for that 😀.

As already mentioned, the 3,5€ stamp on the cover, issued on 11NOV2024,  illustrated with the flags of the Order and the Republic of  Bulgaria, over a map of the later,  was issued to celebrate the 30th anniversary of  formal mutual diplomatic relations, which were established on the 11th November 1994, the Order having opened an embassy in Bulgaria in 2005.

Although the stamp concept would lead us to think to be in the presence of a joint emission, I could not find on the list of Bulgarian issues for the year its counterpart, so my theory in this respect was decidely flopped....