Peculiar 900-year-old Order of the Knights of Malta celebrates anniversary with Vatican mass

AP
February 10, 2013

Screen capture taken from National Post

The Knights of Malta, one of the most peculiar organizations in the world, marked its 900th birthday Saturday with a colourful procession through St. Peter’s Square, a Mass in the basilica and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, himself a member of the onetime chivalrous order drawn from Europe’s nobility.

The Knights are at once a Roman Catholic religious order, an aid group that runs soup kitchens, hospitals and ambulance services around the globe, and a sovereign entity that prints its own passports and enjoys diplomatic relations with 104 countries — yet has no country to call its own.

Read more