The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George

The Constantinian Order’s modern mission, in the face of an increasingly hostile secular world, is to affirm its historic aims – glorification of the Cross, propaganda of the Faith and defence of the Holy Roman Church – in a practical fashion. The Order must exemplify the faith that first inspired Constantine the Great to grant toleration and then convert to Christianity and which provided encouragement during centuries of persecution. The Order does not have a specific Hospitaller mission but instead supports the training of seminarians and help for Christians who, like those both before and after the time of Constantine, suffer for their faith. The Constantinian knights are bound to particular obedience to the Supreme Pontiff and to the maintenance of traditional Catholic Church teachings and liturgical practices.

The Order was confirmed and approved as a lay religious Order in the Bull Militantis Ecclesiae  in 1718 by Pope Clement XI and has been given numerous confirmations of its privileges by successive Popes from Julius III to Benedict XV, as well as by Emperors Ferdinand III and Leopold I, Kings Philip II, III and V of Spain, Kings Ferdinand I and II and Francis I and II of the Two Sicilies, King Jan Sobieski of Poland, the Elector Ferdinand of Bavaria and the Palatinate and Duke Francesco I of Parma.

The Constantinian Order has sometimes been mistakenly described as a “dynastic Order” but it was never formally united with any crown or dynasty and the exercise of the grand mastership by the sometime sovereigns of Parma and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies made it neither a Parmesan nor Neapolitan institution. The grand mastership was held by the head of a sovereign state for a mere one hundred and sixty-one of the half-millennium since the Order’s first appearance in sixteenth century Italy. The Order is no longer engaged in military activities but is nonetheless committed to the same aims, through peaceful means, exemplified in a practical fashion by the commitment to challenge those who persecute Christians whether physically or through legal restrictions on the exercise of conscience or religious practice.  

Since 1731 the ecclesiastical office of Grand Master has been the legacy of the Bourbon family, descended from Philip V of Spain and his wife Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766). Before 1698, its administrative headquarters was based in Rome and Venice, the residence of its grand masters, or travelled with them. From 1698 until 1768 it was based in Parma, even though the grand master himself took up residence in Naples in 1734. The first Bourbon grand master, the Infante Charles de Borbón y Farnese (later Charles III of Spain), whose succession was confirmed by the Pope in 1739, transferred his Neapolitan and Sicilian crowns to his third son Ferdinand by an act of 6 October 1759. The Constantinian grand mastership, however, was invested separately when the young King Ferdinand IV and III of Naples and Sicilies was declared “legitimate primogeniture male heir of the Farnese” ten days later (his succession received Papal confirmation in 1763). In 1768 a second grand prioral church was established in Naples and the separate administration of its Parmesan properties was terminated in 1797, following the seizure of the Order’s properties by the French.  

Its administration only remained in Naples until the downfall of the Two Sicilies Monarchy in 1860-61. Forced into involuntary exile from his homeland the grand master moved to the Palazzo Farnese in Rome until the city fell to Sardinian troops in 1870, but maintained a diplomatic mission to the Holy See until 1902. The revival of the Order’s fortunes in the early twentieth century with the appointment by Popes Pius X and Benedict XV of three successive cardinal protectors and the grant of several churches heralded a period of international expansion. The nominal administration of the Order has remained in Rome, even though the grand masters themselves were resident in Munich, Cannes and Madrid. The Constantinian chapel in the Roman basilica of Santa Croce al Flaminio dedicated by Pope Benedict XV is still the principal ecclesiastical seat of the Order.  

The Order’s modern mission, in the face of an increasingly hostile secular world, is to affirm its historic aims in a practical fashion. These, as stated in its statutes, are glorification of the Cross, propaganda of the Faith and defence of the Holy Roman Church, its special legacy through service in the Orient and the many proofs of the recognition and regard of the Supreme Pontiffs. The Order must exemplify the faith that first inspired Constantine the Great to grant toleration and then convert to Christianity and which provided encouragement during centuries of persecution. The Constantinian knights are bound to particular obedience to the supreme pontiff and to the maintenance of Catholic teachings and traditions, and in its ceremonies the maintenance of the solemnity of liturgical practice. It is an exclusively Roman Catholic Order, confirmed and approved as such by the Holy See, although the Order’s cross has been also given to a handful of Orthodox princes, reflecting the traditional affiliation with Byzantium.  

Its hereditary Grand Masters are the successors of the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon princes by virtue of the statutes which, with Papal approval, made it a subject of canon law; the present Grand Master, HRH Infante of Spain don Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, is the heir of the Farnese Grand Masters, head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies and doyen of the Knights of the Golden Fleece. The Grand Magistery is based in Madrid but the Order’s seat is at the Basilica of Santa Croce al Flaminio in Rome, whose Constantinian Chapel was dedicated by Pope Benedict XV in 1915.