The Maltese cross, what its eight points mean and where to spot it

The Maltese cross is one of those symbols everyone recognises and almost nobody can read. The Government of Malta names it the country’s national symbol, the Order of Malta has used it for more than nine centuries, and it has been taken up by orders of chivalry, regiments and towns across Europe. Here’s what the eight points mean, where the cross comes from and where you’ll see it on a trip to Malta.

What the eight points stand for

The official explanation is the Order’s, and it offers three readings that sit side by side. The first is the eight Beatitudes from St Matthew’s Gospel. The second is the eight virtues a member of the Order was meant to have.

• Loyalty.
• Piety.
• Honesty.
• Courage.
• Honour and glory.
• Contempt for death.
• Solidarity with the poor and the sick.
• Respect for the Church.

The third reading is the most historical, and the one British visitors tend to like. The points stand for the eight langues the knights were grouped into, Auvergne, Provence, France, Aragon, Castile and Portugal, Italy, Germany, and England with Scotland and Ireland. It helps me make sense of Malta, because each langue had its own auberge in Valletta and several are still standing. How the Order was organised is covered in the Knights of Malta.

Far older than Malta

The cross wasn’t born in Malta, which surprises people. The Order considers it Byzantine, probably from the sixth century, and says some scholars think the Normans brought it to Amalfi, where it appears on coins by 1080. The monks running Amalfi’s pilgrim hospital in Jerusalem adopted it, and it became known as the cross of St John. After Jerusalem came Rhodes in 1310 and Malta in 1530, and it was in Malta that it became the Maltese cross. The name stuck so firmly that the Order still carries Malta in its official title, more than two centuries after leaving the island, and its eight-pointed flag flies over its hospitals and 49 national associations worldwide.

Another detail from the Order that I enjoy is that the first clear depiction of an eight-pointed cross is on the coins of Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, between 1305 and 1319, and that its present shape is more than 400 years old.

Is the Maltese cross on the Maltese flag?

No, and it’s the most common mistake. The national flag is white and red with the George Cross, awarded by George VI in 1942, as I explain in the Malta flag. The eight-pointed cross turns up on other state flags instead. The Government gives the President’s flag four gold Maltese crosses, puts a white one in the middle of the merchant ensign, and adds four white crosses to the naval jack.

The Order doesn’t use a single flag either. Its state flag is red with a white Latin cross, while the eight-pointed version is the flag of its works, flown over its hospitals and embassies.

Where you’ll spot the cross in Malta

In your pocket, to begin with. Since 1 January 2008 the eight-pointed cross has been on the reverse of the €1 and €2 coins Malta mints, so if you pay cash you’ll almost certainly end up with one. The rest of the practicalities are in money in Malta.

Then in the stonework. The Order says the cross appears on countless buildings, churches and works of art across the islands, and in Valletta you’ll see it without looking. I’d start at St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Knights’ conventual church, and carry on to the Grandmaster’s Palace.

The keyhole that isn’t in Malta

Plenty of people look for the Order of Malta keyhole expecting to find it on the island, but it’s in Rome. It’s the gate of the Magistral Villa at number 3 Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, on the Aventine Hill. Through the keyhole you see the dome of St Peter’s framed by a laurel hedge, and the Order says it’s the only spot where you can see three states at once, the Vatican, Italy and the villa’s extraterritorial gardens. The gateway is Piranesi’s work from 1765, and the Order has owned the site since 1312.

If you’re in Rome, it’s worth the queue. In Malta you’ll find the cross everywhere with no queue at all.