Presented here is a brief account of the Knights of Malta. A narrative adequately recording their achievements would take volumes, and indeed many excellent volumes have been written in the past two centuries. Therefore, this short history is but an introduction to those noble Christian brothers who established their remarkable hospital in Jerusalem in medieval times. The members of this holy Order, founded in 1048 A.D., were not only hospitallers and monks, but soon became knights who defended the pilgrims who came to worship at the sacred places of Our Saviour's birth, crucifixion and resurrection.

These Brothers of the Hospital, these Knights of Jerusalem, whose Order of Saint John became the greatest of the magnificent religious-military orders, were the last of the Christians forced out of the Holy Land by the violent onslaught of Islam. Indeed, few survived the terrible siege of Acre in 1291. The Knights then rebuilt the Sovereign Order on Cyprus from 1291-1310, before becoming the sovereign of the island of Rhodes where they heroically defended Christendom from 1310-1523. Eventually losing Rhodes to overwhelming Muslim forces, they then made the island of Malta their home from 1530-1798, turning it into the commercial, medical and cultural center of the Mediterranean until that island home fell to the revolutionary forces of Napoleon.

Not to be denied, these dedicated Knights of Saint John reorganized in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1798, where they remained until the Bolsheviks destroyed the Christian Empire of Russia with the Communist blood bath they began there in 1917. Sovereign and never to be suppressed, the Knights are now headquartered in America.

The story of these intrepid Defenders of the Cross is one of the most remarkable and inspiring stories in the annals of history. Our setting it down has been a labor of love.

Nevertheless, in spite of our desire and the effort expended, the history we have produced here is inadequate, for no narrative about the Sovereign Order of Saint John could ever fully describe the devotion, the courage, the heroism, and the miraculous feats of these noble men whose swords and cannon, sleek fighting galleys, fortified islands, and armor clad bodies constituted the principal defense of Christendom for several centuries.