SACRED MILITARY CONSTANTINIAN
ORDER OF ST. GEORGE
The Sacred Military Constantinian Order
of Saint George received confirmation as a Religious-Military
Order from the Holy See and, with the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta, is the only international
Catholic Order which has maintained this status unchanged
to the present day. It is a subject of Roman Catholic
Canon Law. The Order is dedicated to propaganda of the
Faith, Defence of the Church and support of the Holy
See; the members owe a particular duty of loyalty to
the Pope and to support the teachings and dogma of the
Roman Catholic Church.
Since 1731 this has been the inheritance
of the Bourbon family descended from Philip V of Spain
and his wife Elizabeth Farnese.
The Constantinian Grand Magistery is
an inheritance by male primogeniture from the Farnese
dynasty. On the extinction of the latter, the succession
passed with Papal assent to the nearest male heir, the
Infante don Carlos de Borbón y Farnese (later Charles
III of Spain). In 1759, after the latter transferred
his Neapolitan Crown to his third son Ferdinand, the
Constantinian Grand Magistery was ceded in a separate
act ten days later, the young King Ferdinand being declared
"legitimate primogeniture male heir of the Farnese".
The succession to the Constantinian
Grand Magistery can only pass to males and, on the extinction
of the last male descendant of Charles III, it passes
to the Bourbon-Parma line.
Today the Order flourishes under its
XIth Grand Master in succession from Francesco Farnese,
the Infante Don Carlos de Borbón-Dos Sicilias y Borbón-Parma,
Duke of Calabria, doyen of the Knights of the Golden
Fleece. There are nearly one thousand four hundred members
predominately of Italian or Spanish birth, but also
including Portuguese, British, German, French, Swiss,
Belgian, Austrian and American knights and dames.
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