La Religion triomphante, militante et martyre. Piété et valeurs guerrières dans les représentations de l’ordre de Malte

Abstract

The Order of St. John always paid special attention to the publications documenting its military activities, in order to justify both its mission in defence of the faith and its requests to Christian princes for human and material resources. This editorial investment was particularly strong after the dramatic sieges of Rhodes (1480, 1522) and Malta (1565) by the Ottomans. In 1619, just a few years after the Order’s new landing in Malta, "Il glorioso trionfo della sacrosanta religion militare de’ nobili, valorosi e invitti cavalieri di S. Giovanni Gierosolimitano" was published in Italian and Spanish. This article analyses the narrative strategies used in this text within the context of coeval literature on the Crusades and the “Christian soldier”. These strategies included the hagiographic reconstruction of the Order’s origins and development, the providential interpretation of military victory/ defeat, the stereotyped portrayal of the “barbarous” infidel, the complaint about the internal divisions of Christianity against the Turks and the urgent appeal for the reconquest of the Holy Land.