FREE SHIPPING The order of the Knights of Malta was also originally set up to operate a hospice in Jerusalem. The monks began protecting travellers until some were militaristic though still devout Catholics. As the years passed, the order went from location to location, forced to move by ongoing Islamic attacks. Finally they were assigned a fiefdom in Malta by the Church. At first they were beaten by the Turks at this location as well, but the knights of Malta and the Maltese people, with the help of the French, stopped the Turkish attacks. The order later split into two different orders of knights, and of course the order of monks, all of which displayed the eight pointed maltese cross as their symbol. Knights carried the lion in a last stand position on their shields or the maltese cross.

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