The Order of St Anthony of Vienne

Ray Gatt, M.D.(Malta), FRCS (Eng & Edin), MA Hosp Stud (Melit), is a consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Mater Dei Hospital. Gatt’s love for History is undoubted, marked primarily by his acquisition of a MA in Hospitaller Studies and by his current PhD research on the Hospitallers’ grand priory of Messina in the seventeenth century, under the mentorship of Prof Mallia Milanes. His other interests include the medieval historical aspect of the Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus with special emphasis on the turbulent relationship between the latter and the Order of St John.

Synopsis

Sponsored by the Alfred Mizzi Foundation. The dismantlement of the Hospitaller Order of St Anthony of Vienne occurred in the middle half of the eighteenth century. The Roman Curia had mandated that the resultant spoils were to be divided between the Orders of St John of Malta and Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Lazarus. However, other stakeholders influenced the way the spoils were to be partitioned: Rome was reconciled in favour of the Religion, the French monarchy supported the Lazarites, whereas the Gallican Church had its own vested interests regarding the partitioned French benefices. The Archives of Malta folio1375 in the National Library contains a collection of letters and memoires between the interested parties, illustrating especially the complex interrelationship between the two Orders. From these it becomes evident that the Order of St John had been, de facto, the main beneficiary although it ran into great financial difficulties because of various issues. Meanwhile, the Lazarites resorted to legal machinations in an attempt to acquire their share of the booty. In the end, the loans engaged by the Order of St John to pay off the Lazarites for their share of the defunct Order of St Anthony were still outstanding when Grandmaster Hompesch embarked on his final voyage from Malta.

Speaker: Ray Gatt