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he Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
The Constantinian Order of Saint George of the Two Sicilies is such an order of knighthood, whose tradition transcends its own history. A document issued by Pope Leo IX in 1049 refers to the Costantinian Order of Saint George, and a document of 1190 is also know to us. This is the statue decreed by the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus Flavius Comnenus, regarded as the founder of this Order, the first to adopt Saint George as its patron. The order took the religious ‘rule' of Saint Basil. The last of the Comnenus line, to avoid extinction of the Order for lack of heirs, transferred the Grand Magistry to the Duke of Parma, Francesco Farnese, a reigning sovereign and fount of honors. This was grated ecclesiastical approval by Pope Innocent XII with the Bull Sincerae fidei in 1697. The Order received the ‘protection' of the Holy See in 1718. These developments confirmed two essential aspects of the Costantinian Order which remain today - its dynastic nature and its Catholic character. In its military and service tradition, it is also an ‘equestrian' order similar to the Order Saint John. This was emphasised by the Farnese Statutes, which set forth the administration and mission of the order. Lacking sons, Antonio Farnese, a subsequent Duke of Parma and Grand Master of the Constantinian Order, transferred his dynastic and magistral rights to Carlo of Borbone (de Boyurbon), the son of this niece Elisabeth Farnese by King Philip V of Spain, in 1731. This was logical as well as legal insofar as Elisabeth was heiress to the Farnese patrimony in Parma, and Carlo was her male heir, By a nearly bloodless conquest and a simple treaty. Carlo ascended the Neapolitan and Sicilian Thrones a few years later, as Carlo VII of Naples and III of Sicily. His dominions included the island of Sicily and the Italian peninsula south of Rome and the Marches. Parma itself was soon ceded to another branch of the family. Carlo transferred the Grand Magislry and Grand Chancery of the Constantinian Order to Naples, where the Chancery remains today. After many years, Naples once again had become a royal seat'of home rule, with Carlo its resident monarch. The Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, later called the Two Sicilies, thus became a sovereign state fully independent of Spanish authority. The Golden Age of Naples had begun. When Carlo departed for Spain in 1759 to assume the Spanish Throne, he emancipated by his Pragmatic of 6 October 1759 his third-born son, now King Ferdinando IV of Naples, from all paternal and sovereign authority, formally and lawfully establishing the lialian dominions as a sovereign kingdom. One of the elder sons was designated the Heir Apparent to the Spanish Crown; another was unfit to succeed. As a new state and dynasty were established, numerous new national and dynastic laws were promulgated. Several govern succession to the Headship of the House of the Two Sicilies and therefore Grand Magislry of the Constantinian Order. One of these laws established thai the tie jure Crown and the Grand Magistry of the Order are inseparable. Another stipulates tliat although the Crown, and Headship of the House, are transmitted by m.ile primogeniture, certain express conditions must be met for this to occur. Francesco lived in exile until his death in 1894. His Consort, Maria Sofia of Bavaria, immortalised as the 'Heroine of Gaeta' for her selfless sacrifice during the siege, died in 1925. The pretenders to the Sicilian Throne continued to bestow the Constantinian Order in exile, the Royal Family returning to Italy following the establishment of the Italian Republic in 1946. They had not forgotten their former realm, and during the Second World War the Constantinian Order sponsored the operation of much-needed hospital trains there. Acknowledging this, and desiring to rectify the injustice of past events, the President of the Italian Republic officially recognised the Order by a decree of 20 July 1963, and authorised Italian citizens to wear its decorations without restriction; military personnel may wear the "yecorations and ribbon on service uniform. It thus became the only Italian dynastic order to be recognised by the Italian Republic. A subsequent presidential decree of 30 March 1973 established the Italian Association of the Order as an enie morale (legal entity), a form of incorporation making the Order, in effect, part ol the Italian slate. The Constantinian Order is recognised as a 'non-national' order rather than a 'foreign' one because the House of the Two Sicilies is an Italian dynasty whose former territory is part of Italy. The jurisdictional territory of the Grand Priory of Naples and Sicily of the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Malta remains contiguous to that of the Two Sicilies. Ferdinando I maintained a formal, if ineffectual, defence treaty with the Order of Saint Jolin until it was forced from Malta by the French. Most of the professed knights of the Order of Malta are Constantinian knights, including the Grand Master, Fra Andrew Bertie. The Constantinian Order has various categories and ranks. Ladies and gentlemen of noble ancestry may be invested in the categories of justice and grace, others in the categories of merit and office. A medal of merit, issued in gold, silver and bronze, may be awarded to non-Catholics.
Religious functions remain important to the lire of the Order, which observes two annual feasts, the Exaltation of the Cross on 14 September and Saint George's Day on 23 April, in one of its traditional churches. These are the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples, where the last King and Queen of the Two Sicilies are interred in the Royal Chapel, the Basilica of Saint George (n Velabro at Rome, an early-medieval church built upon ancient ruins near the Palatine Hil', the Basilica of Santa Croce in Flaminio in Rome, near the Milvian Bridge, and the Cathedral of Naples, which has a chapel dedicated to Saint Januarius, patron of the dynasty's premier order of chivalry.4 The Grand Chancery of the Order is located in the Palace of the Deputation of the Chapel of Saint Januarius, located next to the Cathedral at Naples. The present Grand Master is Prince Ferdinando di Borbone, Duke of Castro and Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, who assumed this duty from his august father. Prince Ranieri, in 1966. He is married to Countess Chantal de Chevron-Villelte, now Duchess of Castro, and has three children, including a son and heir. This is Prince Carlo, Duke of Calabria who, like the other princes and princesses royal, is styled Royal Highness.^ He frequently represents the Royal Family and the Constantinian Order in Italy and abroad. Born in France, Prince Carlo is fluent in French. Italian and English, and serves as an eloquent spokesman for his dynasty when the Head of the House is not present. Although oilier princcii of Ihc Royal Family serve the Order, it is a grandc d.imc who is one of its more active senior members. This is Princess Urraca, who often attends the events of the Order in Naples and even understands the Neapolitan dialect. Born in 1913 to Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Castro, she is the granddaughter of Prince Alfonso Maria, Count of Caserta, the intrepid brother of Francesco II who led the last defence of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1861. In childhood in Bavaria, Princess Urraca also knew Maria Sofia, last Queen of the Two Sicilies, and is a living link to the last ruling generation of the Borbonedynasty. Knighthood was from medieval times an institution both elite and ennobling. For its preservation of these customs, the Constantinian Order is one of the true treasures of Christianity and of Italy.
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The Royal Order of Saints Januarius of the Two Sicilies
'My Court Chamberlain's gilt keys and my cherry-coloured cordon of Saint Januarius will stay. in a drawer and end up in some glass case of Paolo's. But the Salinas will remain the Salinas.
The fictional character through whom Prince di Lampedusa speaks would be surprised to learn that the highest Neapolitan order of chivalry is still conferred in Italy more than a century after the Risorgimento, that tumultuous effort to unite the country. In fact, the Royal House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies, often but incorrectly referred to as the 'Royal House of Naples', bestows honours in two extant orders of knighthood today. The more widely known, coincidentally named to honour the patron saint of Sicily, is the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (Fig. 1). The only royal dynastic Italian order officially recognised by the government of the Italian Republic, it constitutes a vital part of the old military branch of the Catholic Church, numbering a thousand knights within its ranks. Like the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, with which it collaborates in numerous works of charity, it is based in Italy and counts many aristocratic names among its membership. Lesser known is the dynasty's premier order of chivalry, the Distinguished Royal Order of Saint Januarius, in Italian the Insists Reale Ordine di San Gennaro. Named to honour the patron of Naples, this order numbers but twenty knights. Like the Constantinian Order, the Order of Saint Januarius is a Roman Catholic order of knighthood, first recognised as such by Pope Benedict XIV in a Pontifical Bull of 30 June 1741. Unlike the Constantinian Order, however, it is not military in organisation or character. Rather, it is an honour reserved to those few persons who have rendered outstanding service to the Royal Family and to the people and culture of the former Two Sicilies.
Much that is known of Saint Januarius (San Gennaro) is shrouded in legend, which is to be expected if one considers that he lived long ago, during the ancient Roman rule of Italy. Born in Naples or nearby Benevento during the third century, he was the bishop of the latter during the Emperor Diocletian's honorific persecution of Christians the same persecution that would claim the life of Saint George. It was in rendering comfort and aid to some of these early followers of Christ's_teachings that Januarius found himself a condemned prisoner. The obligations of the Januarian knights, set forth in Chapter VII, Articles 1 through 9 of the original Statutes promulgated in 1738, establish that member knights should assume traditional duties: the defence of the Catholic faith, the attendance at daily mass, the receipt of the Eucharist on the Saint's feast day and Easter, and unswerving loyalty to the Grand Master, at that time the Sovereign of the Realm of the Two Sicilies. In addition to these traditional duties, the knights were required to mark the passing of a fellow knight in a religious manner, reconcile enemies within the Realm, and generally lead exemplary Christian lives. The knights were encouraged to shun the duel, submitting to the judgement of the Grand Master in all disputes, and to seek the Saint's graces in any chapel where he is venerated. There are several such chapels in Italy, and even in the United States there is a Saint Januarius Church, dedicated in 1879 in a town called Naples in New York state.
The Order of Saint Januarius, like most of the Italian orders founded prior to the unification during the latter nineteenth century, is religious and Catholic in character. Today's Italian civil honours are bestowed irrespective of religion in much the same fashion as the Order of the British Empire is bestowed for services to the state. The position of the Bourbons' Constantinian Order vis-a-vis Italy is akin to that of the Venerable Order of Saint John in the United Kingdom. The original Januarian Statutes clearly impose a medieval concept of honour while promoting contemporary ideals governing humanitarian behavior. So successful were these Statutes in Italy that Carlo made these the basis for the Statutes of the Most Distinguished Order of Carlos 111, founded in 1771 in Spain and still bestowed by that government as the highest knightly order of civil merit. It is believed that Carlos was inspired by the birth of an heir—a grandchild—coinciding with the feast of Saint Januarius. Originally established as an order of sixty members, the Order of Saint Januarius is now restricted to twenty members, a change madeby the present Grand Master, H.R.H. Prince Ferdinando Maria Duke of Castro, in 1983.
P.S. = See for furthers informations www.regalis.com, Director: Mr. L. Mantegna Mendola".
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