01-14-2010, 09:52 PM
(01-14-2010, 09:13 PM)damooster Wrote: They sound more elitist than Opus Dei...
Considering that the Order of Malta has a direct succession of grandmasters all the way back to Blessed Gerard Tonque, first grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, in 1099..... that's not too unreasonable. The Order of Malta, then, is actually older than the Templars, and definitely older than any of the current chivalric orders in England today (like the Garter, the Bath, and so forth).