“We preserve within our walls the most comprehensive documented history about Malta and about the Knights’ period in Malta,” declared Fr Columba Stewart to visitors in Minnesota, USA, led by Malta’s Ambassador to the United States, Mark Miceli-Farrugia.

Fr Columba is executive director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) of Saint John’s University in Minnesota. The Hill Museum has been entrusted with safeguarding for posterity, in microfilm and digital format, unique documentation dating back to the foundation of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (The Knights of Malta / SMOM) in the 12th century.

Theresa Vann, curator of HMML’s Malta Study Centre, commented that the centre has already microfilmed the archives of the Knights in the National Library of Valletta and Maltese church archives in the Cathedral Museum of Mdina. These documents span the period between the Knights’ foundation in Jerusalem and the Knights’ departure from Malta in 1798. Dr Vann added that her centre is presently in the process of digitising records of the law courts of the Knights held in the National Archives in Rabat. In addition, the centre is working with the SMOM to digitise archival materials in the priory of Rome. This new work spans the period between the Knights’ arrival in Malta in 1530 and the mid-19th Century.

In the course of a luncheon in honour of the visitors, Br. Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s University, paid tribute to the organiser of the visit, Chevalier Joseph Micallef, Malta’s Honorary Consul-General for North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Brother Reinhart highlighted that “this labour of love – the preservation of this invaluable heritage of mankind – would never have been possible without Chevalier Micallef’s initiative and enthusiastic support”. In thanking his hosts, Ambassador Miceli-Farrugia underscored Chev. Micallef’s unstinting generosity: “Over the past 35 years, Chevalier Micallef has helped raise over $2 million in private donations towards this project. He is, I am sure you will all agree, a truly gracious Knight of Malta!”