The Sovereign Order of the Orthodox Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem

The Russian Grand Priory.

   In 1797 the Order of St John concluded a convention with Emperor Paul I of Russia, whereby a Russian Catholic Grand Priory was created absorbing the Polish Priory. Paul I was created 'Protector' of the Order. In the early months of 1798 a new Treaty had been prepared by the Order, in which a second Priory was to be created in Russia, a Russian Orthodox Grand Priory. The Treaty being agreed to, by both parties, was due to be ratified 1st June 1798, but events took over with the ejection of the Knights from Malta by Napoleon. The Treaty has been preserved in the National Library of Malta, Arch 2196 pages 87 to 105.The majority of Knights took refuge in St Petersburg, where they elected Emperor Paul I as Grand Master. In November 1798 the second Priory was created by the Emperor, with membership extended to all non-Catholic Christians. Paul I was murdered in 1801 and at first his son, Emperor Alexander favoured the Priories, as his father had done, but in 1810, sequestrated the property and income from both the Russian priories. No order was ever issued to suppress the Priories. Alexander needed the cash for his war chest, monies which his father had awarded from the Treasury in the first place. The Priories were certainly not suppressed, as some authors would like to think  For example, a book on Orders of the Knights published in Brussels and Leipzig in 1848 (Livre des Ordres de Chevaliers, Brussels and Leipzig 1848) confirms the existence of the two Russian Priories with their hereditary commanderies, but acknowledges that their relationship with the Order at Rome was feeble.

Nicholas I, brother to Alexander succeeded to the Imperial throne in 1825. He restored the two chapels of the Orthodox and Catholics in the Palace of Malta. Court Almanacs continued to reveal the presence of Knights at Court. Some who were Catholic may have been of the Roman Catholic Order #1, but many were Orthodox and of the Russian Grand Priory. The relaxed attitude toward the Knights of Nicholas is documented in an essay written Baron F.I. Brunov in 1838, where a comment is provided by Emperor Nicholas I, indicating he understood his fathers ideas  #2.

Under the following Emperors, Alexander II (1855-1881) Alexander III (1855-1881) and Nicholas II (1881-1917) lists of Knights of St. John continue in the Court Almanacs. In 1858 Sir Bernard Burke in his book on Orders of Knighthood lists the two Russian Priories as being under the Protection of the Emperor. Burke gained the details from the French heraldic reference work; Loumyer, J. F. Nicholas, Ordres de Chevalerie et Marques d'Honneur, Brussels 1844. The details of the Russian Priories are so precise, that the source could have only been the Russian Priories in St Petersburg. The Court Almanac for St Petersburg 1913-1914 list Knightly titles that are pure Russian in origin, demonstrating clearly that the Russian Priories had not been suppressed but continued. A respected author on the Order, Sir Harry Luke Registrar (of the Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem) credited the survival of the non-Catholic Grand Priory in Russia until 1917 in an article for the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (14th Edition 1966 page 905).

Whatever claims have been made about the suppression of the Russian Grand Priory by the authority of the Roman Catholic Order (the Sovereign Military Order of Malta), these are misplaced as the institution was created by Imperial authority, by a Emperor who was both Grand Master of the Order, and the Emperor of Russia. It was a Russian Order, not a Roman Catholic Order. In other words, it was like the Lutheran JohanniterOrden which as a German Order was not amenable to suppression by the Roman Catholic Grand Master Jean L'Eveque de la Cassiere, although he sought to do so after 1577  when the Bailiwick was officially declared Protestant. The JohanniterOrden was suppressed, but in 1810, and by the Lutheran King of Prussia, Frederick William III. It was however restored in 1852, by King Frederick William IV, minus its property, and therefore not unlike the status of the Russian Commanderies, following the sequestration of their property in 1810/11.

The Russian Catholic Grand Priory had eventually died out, starved of its links with the Roman Catholic Order. The Russian Grand Priory continued in the exilic community in Paris after the 1917 Revolution. A meeting of Hereditary Commanders in Paris June 24th 1928 formally re-established the activities of the Priory. Membership from this group provided a lineal descent to the Priory established by Emperor Paul I. Prince Paul Alexandrovitch Demidoff who was listed in the Almanach de St. Petersbourg 1913-1914 page 178 as "ancient officer du reg. des chevaliers gardes, commandant Hereditaire de l'Ordre de Malte" was one of the Hereditary Commanders who re-established the Russian Grand Priories activities in exile, thereby providing unquestionable proof of the continuous existence of those who were not members of the Catholic Order but, who claimed to be members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

The Hereditary Commanders in America

From 1973 onwards a series of meetings were held by the Hereditary Commanders who resided in the United States of America. The Paris Group was at this time the Seat of the Association of Hereditary Commanders, but the group in the USA represented the most active part. As a result of the demise of the Paris Group founded in 1928, due to the death of its Secretary, General Georges de Rticheff, a fresh initiative in the life of the Russian Grand Priory was embarked upon by Count Nicholas A. Bobrinskoy, an Hereditary Commander (a great-great-great grandson of the Empress Catherine the Great and thus related to Emperor Paul I), who continued its activities under the name of The Sovereign Order of the Orthodox Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem which was officially established on the 20th April 1977. Initially the eldest son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Prince Andrej Alexandrovich became Protector, and after his death in 1981, his younger brother, Prince Vassili took on the role. Following the death of Prince Vassili, the Orthodox Knights came under the Protection of Prince Michael of Russia. The group's claim to be in succession to the 1928 Association was strengthened by the membership of Prince Serge S. Belosselsky-Belozersky who was a signatory to the 1928 Declaration. Count Nicholas was elected as the Grand Prior, and the group has maintained the leadership of those with Russian descent.

In 1992, after a period of seventy-five years of the Order's exile from Russia, His Holiness Aleksy II, the Most Holy Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, sanctioned the Russian Grand Priory under Count Bobrinskoy and permitted its spiritual return to its ancient homeland. The Order has currently re-established a physical presence in Russia and will reclaim its former glory and its role as a great charitable and educational institution of Russia.

The St. John Tradition of King Peter II of Yugoslavia

Various Priories, in America and Europe emerged, claiming descent from the Russian Priories, but lacking any real unity. Not all the claims of these groups were genuine. From 1962 onwards, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, an Orthodox King in exile, became involved in one of these groups and became a rallying point. Whilst the claims of the group (The Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Knights Hospitaller - known by the acronym of OSJ) to have been founded by Russian Hereditary Commanders in 1908 was untrue, the King's own fons honorum, having been made Grand Master in 1965, transformed the organisation into a true Knightly fraternity. King Peter attracted into membership a few Russian Hereditary Commanders who by their very membership, but for a limited period, provided with a link  to the Russian Grand Priory founded by the Grand Master of the Order in 1798, Emperor Paul I . In 1970, King Peter died, and his organisation fragmented into competing factions. This process of fragmentation continued under Prince Andrew, King Peter's brother, who became the Grand Master in 1977 onwards, both during his life, and after his death in 1990. From this process, a number of organisations emerged, all claiming to be the continuation of King Peter's OSJ.

For more detailed information on the history of the Orthodox Order of St John, please go to the website for the Grand Priory at: www.knights-of-st-john.co.uk

To contact the Grand Priory of the British Isles, send e-mail to: [email protected]

To contact our commandery, the Commandery of St. Edmund, send e-mail to [email protected]