Matthew Festing
| Matthew Festing | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta | |||||
 |
|||||
| Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta | |||||
| Reign | 11 March 2008 – 28 January 2017 | ||||
| Predecessor | Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (Acting) | ||||
| Successor | Ludwig von Rumerstein (Acting) | ||||
| Grand Commanders | |||||
| Born |
30 November 1949 Northumberland, England, UK |
||||
|
|||||
| Father | Francis Festing | ||||
| Mother | Mary Cecilia Riddell | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| Robert Matthew Festing |
|
Styles of Prince and Grand Master Fra' Matthew Festing |
|
|---|---|
.svg) |
|
| Reference style | His Most Eminent Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Most Eminent Highness |
| Alternative style | Grandmaster |
Fra' Robert Matthew Festing (born 30 November 1949) is the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. He submitted his resignation from his position as Grand Master on 24 January 2017 following a dispute with the Vatican over his firing of the order's Grand Chancellor. He remained Grand Master until his resignation was accepted by the Sovereign Council on 28 January 2017. He will have the rank of Bailiff Grand Prior. (Code of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta, Article 141).
Festing succeeded his compatriot Andrew Bertie, becoming the third Englishman to serve as Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta since 1259.
Robert Matthew Festing is the youngest of four sons born to Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, a Roman Catholic convert who became a Knight of Malta, and Mary Cecilia, née Riddell, the elder daughter of Cuthbert David Giffard Riddell of Swinburne Castle, Northumberland. His father was the grandson of Colonel Francis Worgan Festing. His mother's family is an ancient English recusant family, descending from the Throckmorton baronets and Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue, martyred in 1539. His three elder brothers are John Festing (a former High Sheriff of Northumberland), Major Michael Festing, and Andrew Festing (formerly President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters).
Fra' Matthew attended Ampleforth College, before going up to St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Modern History. He was sponsored by the British Army in the rank of second lieutenant on a university cadetship whilst at Cambridge before being commissioned, on 23 July 1971, as an Ensign in the Grenadier Guards; his service number was 486330. Currently holding the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army, Festing has also served as the County Cadet Commandant of Northumbria Army Cadet Force.
...
Wikipedia