On Sunday 14 June the Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Fra’ John T. Dunlap, participated in the solemn Eucharistic celebration presided over by Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Patron Saint of the Order of Malta. This occurred at the conclusion of the Jubilee Festivals of the Holy Crucifix, the traditional twenty-five-year event the Magione community dedicates to the venerated image of the Crucifix in the parish church of St. John Baptist.

The Grand Master’s presence at the jubilee celebrations is part of an ancient and continuous relationship and thus has a particular significance for the Magione community, linked for centuries to the Order of Malta. The church of St. John Baptist was in fact built by the Order in the 16th century and still constitutes one of the most significant testimonies of the Knights’ presence in Magione.

The roots of this relationship date back to the Middle Ages and are inextricably linked to Magione Castle, a historic property of the Sovereign Order of Malta a few miles from Perugia. The ancient structure originated in the 12th century as a hospitium of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem to accommodate pilgrims heading to Rome, to the Holy Land or along the Via Francigena towards Santiago de Compostela. Transformed between the 14th and 15th centuries into a fortified Knights of Malta residence, the castle has been one of the Grand Master’s summer residences since the 20th century. Today, as the Umbrian part of the Terre dei Cavalieri network, it continues to represent one of the symbolic places of the Order’s presence in the region.