(Rivista Internazionale - December 1999: CELEBRATIONS FOR THE ORDER'S NINTH CENTENARY- 1/1)

CELEBRATIONS FOR THEORDER’S NINTH CENTENARY

International Meeting on Rhodes

Particularly significant within the framework of the nonacentenary celebrations was the International Gathering of the Order on Rhodes on 9 and 10 October in the presence of H.M.E.H. the Prince and Grand Master, Fra’ Andrew Bertie.

The inauguration of the Order’s Museum took place on the morning of October 9. The Museum has been set up by the Grand Magistry in the Grand Master’s Palace and contains testimonies to Order’s activities over its nine centuries of life. During the ceremony a bronze commemorative plaque was unveiled, expressing the gratitude of the Museum’s management to the Grand Chancellor, Don Carlo Cont Marullo di Condojanni, for these rooms dedicated to the memory of Gabriel Ollivier, former Keeper of the Order’s Art Collections.

On the morning of October 10, over 500 Dames and Knights went on pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Philerimus, patron of the Order. His Eminence, Cardinal Pio Laghi, Cardinalis Patronus, concelebrated High Mass with the Bishop of Gozo, Msgr. Emanuel Gerada, and with the Rector of the Sanctuary, Father Guglielmo Rossi of the Franciscan Friars Minor, remembering all those Knights who had given their lives in the defence of Christianity during the two centuries of the Order’s residence on Rhodes.

The International Gathering ended in the evening with a meeting of all participants, attended by H.E. Poisios, Archimandrite of Rhodes, and Greek authorities. The Grand Master gave a welcoming address to all those who work for the Order throughout the world:

"Eminence, Excellencies, Dear Confreres and Dames,

From the historic walls of this city, now protected as a precious "World Heritage", and for over two centuries fiercely defended by our confreres, from this land which has received their sacrifice for all Christendom and against the annihilation of the roots of our civilisations, I address a warm greeting to all the Dames and all the Knights from all corners of the world, who have desired to reunite in this historical, spiritual return, which has nothing material, and even less nostalgic, about it.

It is not only a voyage in memory, it is not only an "honour to the fallen" but it is certainly a visitation of that sacrifice. The great spiritual significance that the Knights of Rhodes, today of Malta, have left on the shores of this enchanting sea acts as a spur, through these historical testimonies, to our humanitarian action on horizons that have become broader and also more difficult.

My greetings, my good wishes extend, through all of you present now, to all the confrères who with no less sacrifice operate on all continents, in suffering and in need, donating hope, in the wake of the Order’s tradition and its charisma, now as in the past, Tuitio Fidei e Obsequium Pauperum.

May the Holy Virgin of Philerimus protect everyone in the millennium which is about to commence.