1048
BIRTH – Merchants from the ancient Marine Republic of Amalfi obtained from the Caliph of Egypt the authorization to build a church, a convent and a hospital in Jerusalem, to care for pilgrims of any religious faith or race
1113
PAPAL BULL – Under the guidance of its founder, Blessed Grard, a Papal Bull was pronounced on the 15th of February 1113, turning the Hospital into an independent Order named The Order of St. John of Jerusalem
1291
CYPRUS – After the fall of the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, the Order settled in Cyprus
1310
RHODES After 20 years in Cyprus, the hospitallers of the Order of St John settled on the island of Rhodes
1523
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent led a siege on Rhodes forcing the hospitallers to abandon the island
1530
MALTA The Order settled on the island of Malta, which was granted to them by Emperor Charles V. In 1565, the Order defeats the Ottoman army of Suleiman the Magnificent who had led the great siege of Malta
1798
Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the island forcing the Knights to leave Malta
1802
TREATY OF AMIENS – Although the sovereign rights of the Order on the island of Malta had been reaffirmed by the Treaty of Amiens (1802), the Order never returned and abandoned all its military activities
1834
ROME – The Order settled definitively in Rome, where it owns, with extraterritoriality status, the Magistral Palace and the Magistral Villa on the Aventine Hill.
After settling in Rome and specially in the 2nd part of the 19th century, the original Hospitaller mission became once again the main focus of the Order.
With a history spanning over 900 years, the Sovereign Order of Malta can proudly claim to be the sole successor to the Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem
