Beyond the history and pageantry, the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta is one of the world’s major emergency aid organizations as well as providing health and development aid in non-emergency situations.
Join us on campus Wednesday, September 7th from 6:45 to 8:30 pm in the Auriana Auditorium for a lecture by Fra’ Matthew Festing, the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
He was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1977. In 1991 he took Perpetual Vows and became a Knight of Justice. Between 1993 and 2008 he was elected Grand Prior of England, and the first since 1815.
On March 11, 2008, Fra’ Matthew was elected Grand Master during a conclave-style meeting at the Order’s villa on Aventine Hill in Rome. He is the third British Grand Master of the Order, immediately succeeding the second, Fra’ Andrew Bertie. (The first was Hugh Revel in 1258).
Fra’ Matthew received his early education at Ampleforth College. He graduated in Modern History from St John’s College, Cambridge. He served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was Acting Colonel of the Northumbria Army Cadet Force.
In June 1998 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, for whom he has served as a Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Northumberland.
Fra’ Matthew is a patron of the Sandhurst Foundation and a trustee of the Northumbria Historic Churches Trust. Until 2008 he was the Northumberland representative for the auction house Sotheby’s.
