Rome

he reconstruction of the Order in Rome began uneasily owing to difficult contacts with Knights, who, for whatever reasons, had interrupted their relationship with the Grand Magistry. A first chance for a return to normality occurred in 1816 with the revival of the Grand Priory of Rome: Italy was already the nation chosen to house the residence of the Order and it was opportune to restore the Order's organisations in this country. In 1830 the Grand Priory of Lombardy and Venice was re-established with the help of Austria, which had never ceased to recognise the sovereignty of the Order and had always been willing to operate in its defence. The Grand Priory was able to recover its properties in the Veneto region but an analogous operation in Lombardy was impossible as the properties had been sold by Napoleon. At the same time, the Grand Priory of Naples and Sicily resumed its activities.

Good results were also achieved in other European countries with respect to re-organization. All the ancient Langues were abolished in an attempt to renew the Order's peripheral structures and the National Associations of Knights were created. The first to be founded was the German one in 1859, followed in 1875 and 1877 by the British and Italian ones respectively. The will and commitment of the Order, shown at times in which ideals of chivalry were no longer particularly popular, led the Pope, Leo XIII, to satisfy the desire of the Knights of St. John to choose their own Grand Master, a charge which had been vacant since 1805. On March 28th, 1879 the Pope signed a Bull authorising the election and the then reigning Lieutenant Fra' Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce was called to this highest position within the Order.

Signing the agreement between the Order and the Republic of Malta at Fort St. Angelo (21 June, 1991).

Other National Associations soon started their own activities and contributed further to the Order's good works. In 1886 the Spanish Association was born followed in 1891 by the French Association and in 1899 by the Portuguese one. In time, all countries having groups, of Knights gave life to their own Associations, of which there are thirty-eight at present. In accordance with the legal system of the territory concerned the Associations are accorded treatment based upon the type of relationship existing between the State itself and the Government of the Order.

The Association of Italian Knights (ACISMOM) has, since its foundation, achieved very important recognition which mirrors Italy's relationship with the Order. The Italian Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta carries out its traditional activities in the field of charity and welfare through the creation, organisation and administration of hospitals, nursing homes, hospitals for the chronically ill, sanitary departments, surgeries, anti-diabetic centres, and laboratories of analysis. Faithful to its hospitaller vocation but never forgetting the past, at the moment of its foundation the Association gave life, through many conventions and agreements with the Ministry of Works and later with the Ministry of Defence, to a Military Corps, to be employed in relief operations in case of war or natural calamity.

Occasions during which the Knights could demonstrate the efficiency of this organisation were not lacking. In 1908 the earthquake in Messina for the first time engaged the Military Corps which intervened with very considerable employment of men and machinery.

In 1911, during the war between Italy and Turkey, ACISMOM mobilised the Military Corps and in a short time prepared and equipped the hospital ship "Regina Margherita" which, during seven voyages, reached the Ports of Tripoli, Derna, Benghazi and Tobruk, and brought home 1162 wounded and sick soldiers. The first World War witnessed the Corps on the front line. From the start of military operations four trains, each with 306 beds, evacuated the hospitals in the war zone. The four trains gave assistance to the French and British expeditionary forces in Italy and to the Italian expeditionary force in France. During 641 voyages, the trains ran 483,948 km carrying 85,784 wounded and 62,232 sick. For more than forty months, eight first aid stations on the front line were the basis of medical assistance that, by the end of the hostilities would have dealt with 87,390 visits.

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