Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce

Who was Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce?

Fra' Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce was a leader of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, succeeding Alessandro Borgia as its lieutenant in 1871, and then being chosen as the 74th Prince and Grand Master in 1879, a decision approved by pope Leo XIII on 28 March that year. This made him the Order's first Grand Master after seventy years of lieutenants and a peripatetic existence - this had begun to end with its becoming permanently based in Rome from 1834 onwards. During his tenure, Ceschi initiated the creation of national lay associations of the order, made up of knights who would remain lay people and not take the Order's vows.