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Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta
The Flags
The flag of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, abbreviated to the Order or SMOM, is a red flag with a white Latin cross. There are several books about the Order. Recent ones include: H.J.A. Sire - The Knights of Malta - Yale University Press, ISBN 0 300 05 502 1 and Rosita McHugh - The Knights of Malta 900 Years of Care - The Irish Association of the SMOM, Dublin ISBN 0 9525810 0 0.
from an answer to Jaume Ollé, 30 March 1997
This flag is shown in Album des Pavillons, but with proportion 3:4, and labelled "Flag of the Order". The flag with the white Maltese cross on a red field is the flag of the Grand Master in Rome, very similar to the Maltese Republic civil ensign (same with a white border).
Ivan Sache, 17 April 1999
At Expo'98 this summer in Lisbon (both at the fairground and in all the printed material I saw), the flag of the Grand Master of the Order - red with white maltese cross in the center) was in display, and not the Above one (red with white cross trhoughout).
Antonio Martins, 5 may 1999
I seem to recall that the cross existed as a heraldical charge associated with the Order of the Knights of Saint John long before their seat was established at Malta.
Santiago Dotor 28 September 1999
In "Flags in South Africa and the world", Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress of Vexillology, there is a rich paper by Adrian Strickland, entitled: "The vexillological heritage of the Knights of Saint-John in Malta" (pp. 277-287). According it , the flag and ensign of the Order proportions should be 2:3 and width of the cross arm 1/5th of the hoist width. The Order's flag is called in Maltese "Ir-Religjon"
Ivan Sache , 28 Febuary 2000
When I visited Prague, I passed next to SMOM embassy. I have the flags that was hoisted there on video. I checked it again to make sure. In the two entrances and on the building itself there are the same flags, but those are not the flag on top but the Grand Master of the Order (by Antonio Martins) flag . Since the grand master doesn't live in Prague it seems that something is wrong here.
Dov Gutterman , 8 March 2000
The book "Hospitallers - The History of the Order of St John" doesn't actually mention a flag, but has many illustrations of paintings showing the use of the plain white cross on red. There are also a few examples of a white cross with the ends of the arms splayed on red.
Apart from this, there is also a map dating fromc 1722-36 which includes a panel containing the coats-of-arms of the grand masters, supposedly from 1118., reengraved to include 4 more grand masters after the original drawing of the map. (BoAs of some of these are also seen in other illustrations). The first CoA depicted is the white cross on red, and is labelled 'Croise de la Religion'. The rest have the white cross on red in the 1st and 4th quarters. The map itself is at the museum at St John's Gate, Clerkenwell (UK).
The book also names the SMOM as 'The Soveriegn Military and Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, called of Rhodes, called of Malta' as opposed to the 'of Jerusalem, Rhodes and of Malta' or 'of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta' alternatives
Jonathan Dixon , 11 March 2000
Recently I've find the web page http://www.smom.org/order/today.html with a photo of the SMOM prince and grandmaster Andrew Bertie signing some international document (and sittin next to representative of Mosambique). In front of him, the red flag with the white "Maltese Cross" is displayed.
Moreover, article No. 6 of title I of the Constitution of SMOM says: "Par. 1 - The flag of the Order bears either the white latin cross on the red fiels or the white eight-pointed cross (cross of Malta) on the red field."
Are there two flags of the same status?
Jan Zrzavy, 21 July 2000
During my visit to Prague, I saw the Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Correctly as in SMOM's Constitution, there are two flags by the sides of the entrance gate (both probably 2:3):
left - red flag with white Latin cross;
right - red flag with white Maltese cross.
It seems that SMOM (BTW, it is a subject to international law ruled by the prince, in other words, SMOM is a "state") has indeed two variant flags.
Jan Zrzavy, 4 March 2001
by Gvido Petersons (Courtesy of Embassy of SMOM in Latvia), 8 March 2001
Yesterday I've received two images from the Embassy of SMOM in Latvia. I've asked the embassy for pictures of "flag and CoA for representation of SMOM in encyclopedia". Here are both CoA and flag (red flag with the white "Maltese Cross"), courtesy of Embassy of SMOM in Latvia.
Note, the Embassy fly flag with plain white cross.
Gvido Petersons, 6 March 2001
According to [pay00] - Flag of the Order (2:3) - Red flag with white cross throughout. Album does not give FIS dots (just as well, they are meant for national flags and like, while SMOM flag is difficult to set among these, but this is an other issue), but if one would insist then CSW/CSW would be appropriate, I guess. The upper line C is unquestionabl, I guess (any member of the order could use it). S also, all Order bodies use it, while W is questionable - though the Order is military and their "army" use this same flag as well. For use on seas - I question the C-use - there is, as far as I am aware no civilian (merchant) fleet of the Order. However, there might be "state" vessels for S, and these would also be W in a way. Anyway, most of this is just theoretical issue.
The Order seem to choose to show the two flags (flag of the Order plus the flag of the Grand Master) together whenever there is chance to showing two flags. Only when there is need for just one flag, the flag of the Order is choosen as a rule. We show also both flags, but it should be noted clearly tehre that the other is the flag of GM.
Zeljko Heimer, 8 June 2002
I think there are three different flags:
1. national flag version #1 (Latin cross)
2. national flag version #2 (Maltese cross)
3. grand master flag (Maltese cross with a chain. see Grand Master of the Order).
Jan Zrzavy, 8 June 2002
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