Order of Saint Stephen

Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr
Badge of the order S.A.I.R.Sigismondo d'Asburgo Lorena
Awarded by Grand Duke of Tuscany
Type	Military and Religious order
Day	2 August, Feast of Saint Stephen, Pope and Martyr
Eligibility	Noblemen over 18, not descended from heretics
Grand Master	Sigismund von Habsburg-Lothringen, (Pretender Grand Duke of Tuscany )
Statistics
Established	15 March 1561

The Order of Saint Stephen (Official: Sacro Militare Ordine di Santo Stefano Papa e Martire, "Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr") is a Roman Catholic Tuscan dynastic military order founded in 1561. The order was created by Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany. The last member of the Medici dynasty to be a leader of the order was Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The order was permanently abolished in 1859 by the annexation of Tuscany to the Kingdom of Sardinia. The former Kingdom of Italy and the current Italian Republic also did not recognize the order as a legal entity but tolerates it as a private body.

The order was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, with the approbation of Pope Pius IV on 1 October 1561. The rule chosen was that of the Benedictine Order. The first grand master was Cosimo himself and he was followed in that role by his successors as grand duke. The dedication to the martyred Pope Stephen I, whose feast day is 2 August, derives from the date of Cosimo's victories at the Battle of Montemurlo on 1 August 1537 and the Battle of Marciano(Scannagallo) on 2 August 1554.

The objective of the order was to fight the Ottoman Turks and the pirates that sailed Mediterranean Sea in the 16th century. The Turks and the pirates were making dangerous inroads on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea where Cosimo had recently inaugurated the new port of Livorno. Cosimo also needed a symbolic fight to unite the nobility of the different cities that combined to form his new grand duchy (including Florence and Siena), and to demonstrate his support of the Roman Catholic Church. Finally, the creation of a Tuscan military order would also strengthen the prestige, both internal and international, of Cosimo's new state.