With this issue, Poste Magistrali recounts moments in the life and history of the Order from the early 1900s to the 1950s through a careful selection of photographs from the Order of Malta’s historical archives. The images reveal the commitment of knights, ladies, doctors, nurses and volunteers in assisting the sick and needy during the wars of the first half of the 20th century, in emergencies or through other charitable works, expressing the profound essence of the Order’s identity, which still today, as then, combines sovereignty and spirituality in the pursuit of the charism of ‘tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum’.

The six stamps depict, in chronological order:

• hospital activities, through an image of a children’s hospital operating in Milan in the early 1900s;
• rescue and treatment of the wounded during World War I, through an image of a hospital train belonging to the Grand Priory of Bohemia and Austria;
• the first-aid station in St. Peter’s Square during World War II, depicted in a 1944 photograph;
• the transport of patients using SM-82 transport aircraft, provided by the Italian Air Force, which flew under the insignia of the Order of Malta from 1949 to 1960, on numerous rescue missions;
• an image of emergency vehicles leaving for civil protection operations during natural disasters, dating back to 1956;
• the assistance service for sick people on pilgrimage to Lourdes, through a photograph from 1958.

Each stamp is completed by the inscriptions “SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA”, “POSTE MAGISTRALI”, the emblem of the Order’s activities and the corresponding face value.

Credits: Archive of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.