|
A British Priory of the St. John tradition was originally set up in 1965, directly under King Peter II of
Yugoslavia. The first Prior was Marquis di Amodio, a highly respected man. King Peter had been made a Grand Cross in the Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1943, and was able to return the
honour by conferring the Grand Cordon on H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, Grand Prior of the Most Venerable Order in November 1965 thus seeking cordial relations between the Order he led, and the Most Venerable Order of
St. John of Jerusalem at the inception of the British OSJ Priory #3.
Following King Peter's death in 1970, the initiative in Britain became could not escape the factionalism which sadly marred the OSJ of King
Peter. The life of the Priory was practically moribund in the early 1970s, with a revival in the mid to late 1970s under Bailiff Anthony Zammit. In 1978 with a revival of the King Peter Order under
Lieutenant Grand Master Prince Sergei S. Troubetzkoy, the Priory was elevated to the status of a Grand Priory. In 1979 the Order accepted the Grand Mastership of Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia, and brother to King
Peter. In 1987 disruption was caused by the creation of schism initiated by Anthony Zammit who became Lieutenant Grand Master of a separated Order. Through this the work in the British Isles reached a
low ebb. In 1993 Bailiff John Cilia La Corte was sent to London by the late Grand Prior of Malta, Bailiff Ronald H Norris to place the OSJ Britain on a sound footing. Consideration had been given to a
downgraded status of a Commandery for the British OSJ, but so successful was the work of John La Corte, that the Priory retained the status of a Grand Priory and given autonomous status to enable the Order to pursue its
charitable aims without restraint within the British Isles. The first Investiture for the Grand Priory was held on St John's Day, 1994 and the first to be invested were Bailiff D.G. Campbell, Bailiff Dr J.V.
Briffa, Chev. D. Campbell and Dame D. Briffa. John La Corte was successful in gaining the use of the Medieval Commandery of St. John, Swingfield in Kent as a base for the British Grand Priory, providing a fitting
tribute to a work founded by King Peter. Given the fragmentation of the King Peter Order, with further disrupting schisms in 1987, 1990, 1996, and 1998, the British Grand Priory contacted Count Nicholas
Bobrinskoy, Hereditary Commander and leader of the Russian Grand Priory. To enable the members of the British Priory to continue their various charitable and hospitaller endeavours, within a tradition of St. John
of Jerusalem, and firmly within the Russian tradition supported by a Christian Church, in 1998, the members of the British Grand Priory, corporately became members of The Sovereign Order of Orthodox Knights
Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem which represents the authentic continuation of the Russian Grand Priory re-established by the Hereditary Commanders in 1928 at Paris. Accordingly, the British Grand
Priory in now firmly under the Spiritual Protection of His Holiness Aleksey II, The Most Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and under the Imperial Protection of the Romanov Family in the Person of Prince Michael
of Russia. |
