A Brief History of the Order

The Ancient History and Legend of Saint George
The symbolic roots of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George are shrouded in ancient history and medieval legend. Saint George (left), a Christian born in Asia Minor around 270, became a military officer in the Imperial Army. In 303, he publicly tore down one of the Emperor Diocletian's edicts against Christians, an act which led to his torture and eventual martyrdom.

Over the centuries, many legends were told about Saint George. Early Orthodox iconography depicts him slaying a dragon, and in the Middle Ages he came to be known as the Patron of Knights. Saint George was venerated in the East from about 350.

In 312, some years after Saint George's martyrdom, the Emperor Constantine "the Great," on the eve of his victorious battle at the Milvian Bridge in Rome, had a vision of the Cross and the words "In hoc signo vinces" (By this sign you shall conquer). He ordered a labarum (a square banner suspended from a horizontal bar attached to a vertical spear) constructed bearing the Greek monogram XP (for "Christos"). His armies defeated those of Maxentius and Christians were no longer persecuted in Rome. The Christianization of Italy and the rest of Europe followed.

The Cross of Constantine
The Cross of the Constantinian Order of Saint George is a deep crimson Greek Cross Flory superimposed by the XP monogram in gold. At the end of each limb of the Cross is one of the letters I, H, S or V, representing the motto "In Hoc Signo Vinces." The decoration is suspended from a sky blue ribbon of watered silk.

The fifty soldiers entrusted to protect the Labarum constituted the "Labarum Guard" represented today by the fifty bailiff knights grand cross of justice of the Constantinian Order.

The legendary founder of the Constantinian Order of Saint George is the twelfth-century Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Emperor Isaac II Angelus Comnenus. In the fifteenth century, an aristocratic family of Balkan exiles claiming descent from Isaac's dynasty fought alongside Skanderbeg's army in Albania. Establishing their residence at Venice, they began to bestow an honor, which came to be identified as the "Constantinian Golden Militia." In those days the brotherhood was an actual military force engaged in the wars against the Turks in the Balkans. In the sixteenth century, this Comnenus family's claim to the Throne of Constantinople was recognized with several Papal Bulls, and their Golden Militia was likewise recognized.

Throughout its history, the Order has been closely linked to the Roman Catholic Church. To the Angelus grand masters, it was a point of reference in the wars against Muslim invaders; to the Popes it was part of the Counter Reformation.

The Constantinian Order’s Farnese Heritage
The Constantinian Order of Saint George as it exists today has been identified as a dynastic institution since 1698, when the last Comnenus Pretender ceded it to Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro. Pope Innocent XII confirmed this transfer with his Bull, Sincerae Fide, issued 24 October 1699. The main focus of the Constantinian Order was, and remains, the propagation of the Catholic Faith, although it supports charitable works as well, and today enjoys a special role in the preservation of the culture of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The Farnese Statutes were the first formal Constitution of the Order, setting forth its purpose and mission. On the initiative of successive Grand Masters, the Statutes evolved over the centuries to reflect the changing times.

In 1731, the Order passed by dynastic right to Prince Carlo de Bourbon, son of King Philip V of Spain by his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese, who was the niece and heir of the last Farnese Grand Master, Prince Antonio. The young Carlo entered Parma as its sovereign ruler in 1732.

Two years later, Prince Carlo de Bourbon ("di Borbone" to Italians) became King of Naples. For the first time in centuries, the Neapolitans could boast that their monarch would reign in their city. For centuries, Naples had been ruled from afar, with local administration overseen by viceroys who, themselves, were often foreigners.

In 1735, Carlo was crowned King of Sicily at Palermo. His Grand Magistry of the Constantinian Order was recognized with a Papal Bull in 1738. A few examples of Carlo's image, such as his statue at Messina [shown here], are still visible in Italy today. His greatest legacy was the development of Naples itself. The Royal Palace and the nearby Teatro San Carlo, which opened on the King's name day in 1737, are lasting testaments to his memory.

The Consolidation of the Order under the Bourbon Two Sicilies Dynasty
Two decades later, when Prince Carlo succeeded his elder half-brother to the Spanish Throne, he ceded the Neapolitan and Sicilian Crowns to his son Ferdinando, who became Grand Master of the Constantinian Order. King Ferdinando I of the Two Sicilies (as his realm was called after 1816) reigned until 1825 and his successors to the Throne, King Francesco I and King Ferdinando II also held the office of Grand Master of the Constantinian Order.

The Order was bestowed in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until 1861, when the forces of King Francesco II(left), the son of King Ferdinando II and Queen Maria Cristina of Savoy, were defeated by invading troops at the Angevin fortress of Gaeta, on a cape midway between Naples and Rome.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was annexed (following that of Parma, Tuscany and Romagna) to the newly created Kingdom of Italy. As a result of the loss of the King’s realm, relations between his dynasty and that of the newly created Italian Royal Family were poor. King Francesco II lived in exile in Rome and following the annexation of the Papal States to Italy in 1870 to Trent, where he remained until his death in 1894. His consort, Queen Maria Sofia, younger sister of Empress Elisabeth ("Sissi") of Austria-Hungary, lived for many years in Bavaria, which her family had once ruled, and later died at Paris in 1925.

The remains of the last King and Queen of the Two Sicilies are interred, with those of their daughter (who died in infancy), in 1984 in the Royal Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples.