The Grand Master

The Grand Master is elected for ten years by the Council Complete of State from among the professed knights.

Under the Constitution, as the religious superior and sovereign of the Order of Malta, he must devote himself fully to the development of the works of the Order and set an example of Christian life to all its members.

He holds the supreme authority. Together with the Sovereign Council the Grand Master issues legislative measures not contained in the Constitution, promulgates acts of government, manages the property of the Common Treasury, ratifies international agreements and convenes the Chapter General.

The states with which the Order has diplomatic relations accord the Grand Master the prerogatives, immunities and honours reserved for heads of state. The Grand Master bears the title of Most Eminent Highness, and the Holy Roman Church accords him the rank of Cardinal.

The Grand Master resides in the Magistral Palace, the seat of the Order's government, in Rome.

His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master Fra’ John T. Dunlap

Fra’ John T. Dunlap was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1957. After studying at the University of Nice he graduated from the University of Ottawa and then took a law degree at the University of Western Ontario. John Cabot University in Rome awarded him an honorary doctorate in public service.

Fra’ John Dunlap is an attorney admitted to the New York State Bar and a barrister and solicitor of the Law Society of Ontario. In 1986 he joined the law firm Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller in New York and became a partner in 1993, specialising in corporate and immigration law. An internationally recognised lawyer, he has been legal counsel to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations since 1997.

He came into contact with the Order of Malta and discovered his religious vocation in the mid-1980s while volunteering with patients suffering from AIDS and other diseases at the Cardinal Cooke Medical Center in Harlem, New York, where he volunteered every week for 30 years.

He was admitted to the Order of Malta in 1996 and took temporary vows as a Knight of Justice in 2004. In 2006 he was elected the first Regent (religious superior) of the Subpriory of Our Lady of Lourdes, based in New York. On 7 June 2008 he took solemn vows, becoming the first American member of the Order to be a professed knight. For more than ten years he served the Order as President of the Committee for the Protection of Names and Emblems and as its representative to the Alliance of the Orders of St. John.

In 2009 he was elected to the Sovereign Council for a five-year term, and the Chapter General re-elected him in 2014 and 2019. After the death of Fra’ Marco Luzzago he led the Order as Lieutenant of the Grand Master from June 2022. On 3 May 2023 the Council Complete of State elected him Grand Master.