Last updated Borstkruis van een Ridder van Obediëntie
The Knights and Dames in Obedience form the second of the three classes of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Unlike the members of the first class (the Knights of Justice) who make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the members of the second class make a promise of obedience by which they "oblige themselves to strive for the perfection of Christian life in conformity with the obligation of their state, in the spirit of the Order" (Constitutional Charter, Article 9, Par. 2).[1] The class was instituted between the two World Wars in order to strengthen the Order's religious and spiritual character. The Knights in Obedience wear a red-bordered black scapular over their choir dress.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta and also known as the Order of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalric and noble nature.
The Knights of Justice form the first of the three classes of members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta together with the professed conventual chaplains. They make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. "They are religious for all purposes of Canon Law.". Unlike most professed members of Catholic religious orders, they are not required to live in community..
The three evangelical counsels or counsels of perfection in Christianity are chastity, poverty, and obedience. As Jesus of Nazareth stated in the Canonical gospels, they are counsels for those who desire to become "perfect". The Catholic Church interprets this to mean that they are not binding upon all and hence not necessary conditions to attain eternal life (heaven). Rather they are "acts of supererogation" that exceed the minimum stipulated in the Commandments in the Bible. Catholics that have made a public profession to order their life by the evangelical counsels, and confirmed this by a public religious vow before their competent church authority, are recognised as members of the consecrated life.
Since the late 1990s the Promise of Obedience is linked to the pre-existing category of a knight or dame. Hence, there are three categories:
Knights and Dames of Honour and Devotion in Obedience
Knights and Dames of Grace and Devotion in Obedience
First Category: Knights and Dames of Honour and Devotion
Second Category: Conventual Chaplains ad honorem Third Category: Knights and Dames of Grace and Devotion Fourth Category: Magistral Chaplains Fifth Category: Knights and Dames of Magistral Grace
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