HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND NOBLE ORDER OF THE
KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN INTERNATIONAL
AND THE ORDER IN GHANA


The Early Years

The Institution of the Ancient and Noble Order of the Knights of St. John
International is ascribed to some gallant merchants from the city of Amalfi in
the Middle East who in the year 1048 AD founded a hospital in Jerusalem to take
care of the pilgrims who visited the Holy Land. The hospital was erected near
the place where Our Lord Jesus Christ fell the second time on His way to Calvary,
carrying the ignominious cross.

The Hospital was placed under the patronage of St. John the Baptist, the man
specially chosen by God to be the herald of the Saviour and to prepare the human
race for his coming.

The merchants constituted themselves into the Order of Knights of St. John
Hospitaliers, whose first leader was Master Gerald. They nursed the wounded
pilgrims most tenderly  and cared  for the sick and needy as well.

Their charitable works attracted the first ruler of Jerusalem, King Geoffrey in
1907 when the King visited the Hospital, he was so struck with the efficient
manner in which the establishment was managed by Grand Master Gerald that he
immediately endowed the Order with memorial rights. As the crusaders returned
to the countries, they established similar hospitals throughout Europe to
propagate the ideals of the Order. The properties which the acquired facilitated
their charitable works.

When Grand Master Gerald died in 1118, Master Raymond du Puy succeeded him and
continued with the good works by using the wealth accumulated to establish more
hospitals and infirmaries which were managed by communities of Hospitallers.
Grand Master Raymond, however, proposed material changes in the constitution of
the Order, the most important of which was the requirement that members bore
arms for the defend of the c hurch. The merchants received the approval of the
then King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and from that time onwards the Order of St.
John Hospitallers was permanently established on a military basis.

Large donations made it possible to pay for armed escorts who defended the
movement of pilgrims. These escorts later became an army of Knights recruited
from among the crusaders. In this way the Knights of St. John became military,
but it still retained its original character of caring for the sick, the poor
and the needy.

Military Setbacks

For years the Knights engaged in different wars with the Moslems and held
different strongholds against the enemy of Christendom. After the fall of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem, follwoing its conquest by Saladin in 1197, the Knights had
to move to the city of Acre losing their possessions in the Holy land to
infidels. Acre also fell to the invaders but the crusaders were undaunted. They
took refuge in Cyprus  where they built a fleet to protect the pilgrims. The
conquered their attackers and occupied the Island of Rhodes for two centuries
where they changed the name of the organisation to the Knights of Rhodes. They
were eventually defeated in 1522 by the Turks but their lives were spared. In
1530, King Charles V of Spain granted them the Island of Malta which enabled
them to resume the role they played in Rhodes. The annual presentation of a
falcon to the Viceroy of Spain and a guarantee that they would never make war
upon his kingdom was all that was required in return.

Modern Knighthood

The famous deeds of the medieval Knights nearly passed into oblivion as the
years passed by. However, in 1886, some American catholics of the City of New
York met and decided that a living monument be built to commemorate the gallant
Knights who had so gallantly defended the church in the medieval era. They
decided to revive the Order by reforming the "Roman Catholic Union of St. John".

On May 6, 1886, the Ancient and Noble Order of the Knights of St. John was
established  in the United States by a special act of legislature with its aims
and purposes as follows:

Objectives:

The founders of the Knights of St. John had ideals which they desired to spread
and foster among Catholic men. They understood the truth of the adage, "In Unity
there is Strength". Alone, they could do little but in uniting many groups and
people under  a leadership, they could accomplish much.

This was the underpinning idea upon which the Knights of St. John grew and
prospered.

They stated their Purpose to be:

(a)    to create and foster a feeling of fraternity and  fellowship among the
       various commanderies

(b)    to improve their moral, mental and social condition

(c)    to aid, assist and support members and their families in case of want,
       sickness and death and

(d)    to promote a more generous and filial respect for the spiritual authority
       of the Roman Catholic Church.

The sphere of activities of this organisation was not limited to the boundaries
of the United States but was expanded to other parts of the world including
Africa.

The Order In West Africa

The Order of the Knights of St. John was introduced into the Gold Coast, now
Ghana, in 1933 and this was by divine providence. One Anthony Quansah of
Saltpond, then a shipping clerk and a Catholic, was always observed to say the
grace before and after meals whenever he and his co-workers had lunch in the
ship that frequently docked at the Takoradi Port. An expatriate officer on board
one of these ships was impressed when he observed that Anthony made the sign of
the Cross whenever he prayed. He spoke to Anthony and as soon as he was
convinced that the clerk was a Catholic and hailed from a Catholic family, he
discussed several topics with him one of which was the Order of the Knights of
St. John.The officer, in fact, gave Anthony some papers about the Order and
young Anthony lost no time in getting those documents to his father, the Late
Bro. Emmanuel Raphael Quansah of Saltpond.

The late Bro. Quansah got a few zealous aspirants together and applied to the
supreme Commandery in the United States Of America for permission to form a
Commandery in Saltpond in the Central Region of Ghana. He also approached the
then Archbishop of Cape Coast, The Late Archbishop Thomas William Porter in 1933
for permission to introduce the Order into the country. His Grace stipulated
that they were to conduct meetings with prospective members for a period of five
years while the application was being considered. At the end of the fifth year
i.e. 1937, His Grace gave approval for the establishment of the Order in
Saltpond. In the course of exchanging correspondence with the Supreme Secretary,
Bro. Quansah was informed of the presence of one Bro. Bonito, an initiated
member of the Order who was at that time the Manager of a merchant firm Messrs.
G. B. Ollivant Ltd. in Cape Coast. Consequently, the Supreme Board took advantage
of this propitious opportunty to invest in Bro. Bonito with the executive
authority to arrange the initiation of the aspirants and the eventual
inauguration of the first Commandery of the Order at Saltpond.

By providential coincidence,  the parish at Saltpond was dedicated to St. John
the Baptist and it was, therefore, most appropiate that the first Commandery in
West Africa should be chartered as St. John the Baptist Commandery No. 346. The
Commandery was duly inaugurated in 1937 with Bro. Quansah as its first President.

Meanwhile young Anthony grew up and as was expected, he became an initiated
member of the Commandery he helped to found.

With this development, the stage was set for the growth and expansion of the
Ancient and Noble Order of the Knights of St. John in other parts of the country
and beyond. Accra, the capital of the British colony of the Gold Coast, was the
next to be attracted by the Order. The inauguration ceremonies  of Sacred Heart
Commandery No. 351, Accra was ably performed by The late Worthy President, E. R.
Quansah of Commandery No. 346 on Pentecost Sunday, may 27, 1944 with the
approval of Mgr. Noser, later Bishop of Accra.

With the establishment of the Sacred Heart Commandery in Accra, the biblical
mustard seed was sown, and indeed, it multiplied into several folds. In no time
the Order of the Knights of the St. John was flourishing in many  parishes in
the country with its military wing adding colour and pageantry to all festive
church occasions, thus offering inducement to the young men to take more
interest in religious affairs of the church.

The universality of the Roman Catholic Church coupled with cross border trade
and movements of goods and persons facilitated the rapid expansion of the Noble
Order in the West Afircan sub-region. Over a span of a short time the Order was
inaugurated one after the other in Lome, Togo; Monrovia, Liberia; Enugu, Nigeria;
and Freetown, Sierra Leone. The expansion and growth of the Knights of St. John
in these four West African countries was not without its snow-ball effect. The
Charter granted to the West African Grand Commandery on August 15, 1949 shall
have complete and  final authority in all matters,  questions and legislation
governing the West African Grand Commandery of the Knights of St. John. But this
was short-lived.

The West African Grand Commandery had undergone major transformations. It has
been decentralised into Grand Commanderies of Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. A further decentralisation of the Ghana Grand Commandery into
three Grand Commanderies corresponding to the three Archdioceses of the Catholic
Church was witnessed in 1995. Hence, we now have the Accra Grand Commandery,
Cape Coast Grand Commandery and Tamale Grand Commandery. All the three Grand
Commanderies were inaugurated at an impressive and colourful ceremony at the
University of Ghana, Legon on October 5, 1995 by General John M. Windsor, Jr.
then Supreme President and supported by the Supreme Secretary, Major-General
Joseph W. Hauser, Jr.  The first elected Grand President of the Accra Grand
Commandery is Brigadier-General Michael U. Tantuo, then Commander of the 12th
District Commandery.

Meanwhile, in July 1992 the name was changed to the Knights of St. John
International to reflect its Global Status. Consequence to that came the
Globalisation concept which saw a worldwide transformation of the Order into
geographical areas with the appointment of Supreme Subordinate Presidents.
Ghana has since established its Supreme Subordinate Commandery with Major-
General J. W. Biney as its first Supreme Subordinate President. With its present
status, the Supreme Sub-ordinate Commandery has jurisdiction over the three
Grand Commanderies in Ghana as well as over Sierra Leone.

The Ladies Co-ordinating Committee has also been established to co-ordinate the
activities of the three Grand Ladies Auxilliaries in Ghana with Sis. Josephine
Sey as the first Chairperson.

LADIES AUXILLIARY

The Ladies Auxilliary have been very active in organising in all the five
countries in West Africa. The first Ladies Auxilliary was organised in Liberia
followed by Philomena's Auxilliary at Sekondi, then Kumasi, Keta and Denu
respectively. The ladies are a strong support of the Knights whenever they turn
out.

JUNIOR ORDER

Running concurrently with the Knights and Ladies is the Ccadets & Junior
Auxilliaries. These are the nursery stages of the Order where young boys and
girls, as future leaders are groomed to take over from the older Knights and
Ladies.

CONCLUSION

The Knights of St. John International in Accra, and for that matter, Ghana in
general enjoy a tremendous support and encouragement of the Archbishops and
Bishops. They have been the rock behind the formation of the Order in many areas
and spiritual advisors providing guidance. It is hoped that the members will
continue to fan the spirit of brotherhood, enthusiasm, co-operation and self-
sacrifice that have always characterised this Ancient and Noble Order of the
Knights of St. John International.