Pope Francis meets head of Knights of Malta

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 23 - Pope Francis on Thursday met the head of the Knights of Malta, Fra' Matthew Festing.
    Festing, who was accompanied by 11 knights in their red and white robes, gave the pope a silver medallion of St John of the Hospitallers, while the pope gave Festing a medallion showing St Martin giving half his cloak to the poor man, as well as copies of the recent encyclicals "Evangelii gaudium", "Laudato sii" and "Amoris laetitia". "You do good," the pope told Festing, before leading those present in an "Ave Maria".
    Festing is Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM).
    SMOM, the smallest sovereign State in the world, runs a large charity-hospital organization around the world, and has recently provided humanitarian aid for countless refugees and migrants.
    The Knights of Malta, as they are more widely known, were founded on the Mediterranean in the 11th century as a military religious order like the Templars.
    They were removed from Malta by Napoleon.
    The Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous and noble nature, was founded as the Knights Hospitaller circa 1099 in Jerusalem, making it the world's oldest surviving chivalric order.
    Headquartered in Palazzo Malta in Rome, its mission is summed up in its motto: "Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum"; protecting the Catholic Church and serving those in need.