The souvenir sheet contains one stamp and there is also First Day Cover (FDC) issued by Croatian Post. The souvenir sheet is a joint issue by the Republic of Croatia and the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta developed on the tradition and spirit of the Knights Hospitaller, the monastic Hospitaller order. Its very beginnings reach into 1048 when the Caliph of Egypt allowed the Hospitaller, also called the monks of St. John, to provide care to poor, sick and injured pilgrims. After the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1099, under the guidance of Brother Gerard, the blessed and first grand master of the order, a veritable knight-monk order was formed. The Pope Paschal II in his bull Pie postulatio voluntatis from 15 February 1113 recognised the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and placed it under the protection of the Holy See. From that moment the Hospitaller monk community became a laical religious order which soon took over care and also military protection of all sick and poor pilgrims, as did the hospital in Holy Land. After the fall of St. John of Accra, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land in 1291, the order withdrew to Cyprus, and then in 1310 to Rhodes and finally in 1530 to Malta, which it had to abandon in 1798 after it had been conquered by Napoleon. Since 1834 the seat of the Order is in Rome where the extraterritoriality has been granted to it.
Fra Matthew Festing is the 79th Grand Master and Prince of the Order of Malta whose motto is: defence of the faith and help to the poor. From knightly orders, apart from the Order of Malta the Holy See has recognised just one another knightly Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. With the support of even 80.000 volunteers and 25.000 physicians, nurses and other personnel, 13.500 knights and dames are active in 120 states in the world providing help to all threatened people regardless of their race and faith, in natural disasters, in war areas as well as in the poorest countries in the world.
Activities of the Order of Malta in Croatia were very intensive at the time of Homeland War, especially in providing help to Vukovar but also medical care to war victims and refugees. In Croatia there is an active Maltese Office since 1993 which takes care of children and youth with special needs.
The presence of the knights of Malta in Croatian area reaches far in history. The Bosnian banus Borić was the first who brought them to Croatian areas giving them land ownership (demesne) as gift. They remain present in Croatian territory until 17th century as the Priory of Vrana. One of Croatian Maltese knights was Croatian banus (1903 - 1907) Teodor Count Pejačević from Virovitica (1855 - 1928), who like his father Ladislav Count Pejačević, Croatian banus, became a Knight of Malta in 1884, whereof the medal of the Order of Malta (white cross with eight points) hanging round his neck on the picture witnesses. Later, also his older son Marko VI became the knight of Malta.
Claude Grbeša
