Find a small country.

[GorillaMan]

@Polycarp

As Bill said to Monica’s understudy, “Close, but no cigar!” You’re on the right track, though.

Aha, got it. Although I did check with Google.

[Polycarp]

@GorillaMan

Aha, got it. Although I did check with Google.

For those who don’t want to play guessing games in GQ, see the fifth paragraph here. (There are better accounts, but not available online AFAIK.)

[Captain_Amazing]

Well, that does fit with their love for small islands.

[Polycarp]

@Captain Amazing

The Knights of Malta. They were originally an order of religious knights called “The Knights of the Hospital of St. John in Jerusalem”, and they provided lodging and medical care for pilgrims and crusaders in the middle east (That’s where we get the word hospital to refer to a building that heals the sick). After the crusades, they ruled the Island of Rhodes (as the Knights of Rhodes) until 1522, when they were kicked out by the Turks. After the Turks conquered Rhodes, the King of Spain, probably figuring that one small island is as good as another, gave them Malta. They changed their names to the Knights of Malta, and ruled there until 1798, when Napoleon, probably figuring that he needed a vacation, went to Malta and took the place over.

At this point, being broke, (most of the Protestant countries siezed their funds and chapter houses during the Reformation, and they had a series of really incompetant Grand Masters), and lacking a king to give them another island, they fled to Rome, where the pope gave them shelter. They now exist as “The Sovereign Military Hospitalier Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta”, figuring it was a better name than “The Knights of an Office in the Vatican”. They’re currently a country in the theoretical sense, but they don’t really own any land. They are parties to some treaties, they’re permanent observers at the UN, and their office has extraterritoriality.

They spend most of their time nowadays doing charitable work. Here’s their website:

http://www.orderofmalta.org/index.asp?idlingua=5

IIRC, they lease a villa in or adjacent to Rome which is given sovereign-nation recognition by Italy, though they don’t own it.

“How big’s your country?”

“Oh, about two acres, at least until the lease runs out.”

[Vlad_Igor]

Oy, talk about your moveable feasts.