New Title Conferred on Late Grand Master

 

One of the several official titles of The Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta has been “Humble Servant of the Poor of Christ”. Our previous Grand Master, Fra’ Andrew Bertie (pronounced “Barty”), now has a new title, that of “Servant of God”.

 

Born in London on 15 May 1929, Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie was the son of the Earl of Abingdon, a direct descendent of the Stuart line of monarchs, whose family has had royal ties for centuries. He was the fourth cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth II.  Once in a while he would tell how the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and he would play together when 5 and 6 years old.  

 

He was educated at Ampleforth College, Christ Church Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and he served in the Scots Guards. He worked as a financial journalist in the City of London, before taking up the senior post in Modern Languages at Worth School, Sussex. His education and career put him in close contact with the Benedictines, whom he admired greatly

 

He had an extraordinary ability with languages. Employed to teach French and Spanish, he had fluency and was able to teach other languages, among them German, Russian and other Slavic tongues, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Latin, Italian, ancient Greek, and Turkish. He told of having studied Tibetan with the monks at Lhasa, but when he travelled to Indonesia, and tried to speak with Tibetans there, they could not understand him and told him that what he had learned was the special “high court” language spoken only by the high nobles. (He knew the “old form” of German penmanship called “Sütterlin” which had been abolished in 1941. When he learned that I also knew it, we exchanged correspondence in German in that old script.)

 

When possible, he spent his holidays on the Island of Malta where his parents had settled. There he was at his most relaxed and happiest, dressed in baggy old shorts and flip-flops while tending his small orchard, whose four different varieties of oranges were a constant source of pride in good weather and anxiety in bad. His real love was in organizing and teaching judo courses for children in Malta, he himself having earned a black belt. He was also a skilled fencer.

 

He had a great breath of knowledge about the world, especially strange and esoteric subjects. He was greatly interested in Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism, though he was never a relativist wavering from the true faith. He had a very deep devotion to Our Lady, especially under the title Our Lady of Philermos.

 

At the age of 27, on November 14, 1956 he was admitted to the Order of Malta and on  March 31,1968 became a Knight of Obedience. On March 28, 1977 he made his first temporary vows as a Knight of Justice and on May 20, 1981 he made perpetual or solemn religious vows. He served on the Sovereign Council (the governing body of the Order) for the following seven years before being elected its 78h Grand Master on April 8, 1988, the first Englishman to be elected to the post since 1258. He died in Rome on February 7, 2008

 

It was his concern for the sick that prompted him to join the Order of Malta. As Grand Master, he was a reformer and modernizer. The Order grew exponentially under his guidance, with a constant commitment to involving youth, the expansion of the humanitarian activities, the reform of the Constitution and Code, and a special emphasis on the spiritual life of the members. In addition, the Order’s bilateral diplomatic relations increased from 49 to 100 countries.

 

He was at heart a shy, humble, down-to-earth and very private person. (He would have been convulsed with laughter if he heard his cause for beatification was to be opened.) He was approachable and understanding of human foibles, but he did not suffer fools well. He was a true gentleman of the old school, with impeccable manners and impeccable taste in clothes.  Having been raised in court circles, he was knowledgeable of old and the current etiquette. But he was used to the British system, and often expressed his frustration and disapproval (below his breath) when some of the members of the government and household and visitors, born of ancient high royalty or nobility, would insist on using the old imperial and royal third-person forms, such as “Would His Most Eminent Highness be pleased if it were arranged to have a coffee?” instead of “Sir, do you want coffee?”

 

Let there be no doubt, he most definitely was eccentric. But he was authentic. Alumni of Worth recall how, on his way to breakfast each morning, Fra' Andrew would startle the campus by giving the fullest possible voice to the Muslim call to prayer -- Allah u Akbar. 

 

As today, the Prince’s dining room was shared by the Council and high guests, and conversation bounced from Italian, to English, to French, to German, to Hungarian to Czech, and oft to others. It was taken for granted that every guest was able to converse in at least three languages, and the Grand Master could do it in almost all of them.

 

He enjoyed the evenings at the Magistral Palace, when after supper he and those living there, and at times some guests, would join him for a smoke and a post-prandial libation. He smoked Gauloises almost continuously, and others added to the fog with their cigars or pipes. He favored single-malt very aged Scotch, and was generous with his copious supply.  Conversations were interesting and instructive. Many anecdotes were told about private conversations in some of the palaces of the highest ranking houses during the Second World War, involving fine old anti-Nazi conspirators and some lost attempts to end the war. 

 

By his profound spiritual and human virtues, and not least his commitment to practice the Order of Malta’s founding motto “defense of the faith and assistance to the poor”, Fra’ Andrew showed signs of heroic virtue, the primary requirements for sainthood. He had no shortage of fortitude, stability, humility and a profound sense of service. In February of 2013, only five years after his death (the minimum term envisaged by canon law) the request to initiate the procedure for his Beatification and Canonization was presented.

 

The opening session of the diocesan inquiry into the Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Fra’ Andrew Bertie, took take place on February 20 in the Rome Vicariate at St. John Lateran. Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Vicar General of his Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, presided over the solemn act. The hearing was preceded by a Mass celebrated in the Basilica of St. John Lateran by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinalis Patronus of the Order of Malta. This historic event was attended by the current Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, accompanied by the Sovereign Council, the relatives of the late Grand Master and the heads of the Order of Malta’s Grand Priories and National Associations from the five continents. Some 1,300 persons from 35 countries came to Rome from all over the world to participate.

 

That Fra’ Andrew was held in high regard is evidenced by the many honors bestowed on him. He was made an honorary citizen of a number of cities in Italy and elsewhere. He held several honorary doctorates -- in medicine and surgery, jurisprudence, humanities, law, Collar of the Order of Pius IX from the Holy See, the Austrian Golden Fleece, Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honneur, France, and was holder of more than 50 decorations from other countries.

 

His leadership was discrete and gentle but firm and constant.