Antoine de Paule

Antoine de Paule
Grand Master of the Order of Saint John
In office
10 March 1623 – 9 June 1636
Monarch King Philip III
Preceded by Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos
Succeeded by Giovanni Paolo Lascaris
Personal details
Born c. 1551
Provence, France
Died 9 June 1636
Malta
Resting place St. John's Co-Cathedral
Nationality French
Military service
Allegiance Sovereign Military Order of Malta Order of Saint John

Fra' Antoine de Paule (c. 1551 – 9 June 1636) was elected the 56th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (the Order of Malta) on 10 March 1623. He died on Malta thirteen years later, on 9 June 1636, after a long illness and at the age of 85. His epitaph eulogizes him as a leader who both loved his subjects and was loved by them in return. He is said to have made more resources available to the Order, thus strengthening it. He also sought to fortify ramparts which the Order had erected for defense.

However, De Paule was not without his enemies, some of whom presented a memorial to Pope Urban VIII describing him as "a man of loose life and conversation", "guilty of simony", who had "bought his dignity with money". In response, De Paule sent a delegate to the Vatican to deal with the accusations.[1]

As Grandmaster, De Paule acted as a judge when a once-captured ship was re-captured and the original owner claimed the ship, decided whether to release a galley rower of a captured privateering vessel who was himself earlier captured by the privateers and forced to row, and appointed abbots and priors to various positions, amongst other responsibilities.[2]

The town of Paola, Malta, was named after the Grandmaster, who laid its foundation stone in 1626.

Square in Paola named after Antoine de Paule
Preceded by
Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos		 Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller
1623–1636		 Succeeded by
Giovanni Paolo Lascaris

References

  1. ↑ The history of the Knights of Malta. Printed for G. Strahan. 1728. pp. 1–69. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  2. ↑ Van Winter, J.M. (1998). Sources concerning the hospitallers of St John in the Netherlands: 14th-18th centuries. Brill. p. 126. ISBN 9789004108035. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
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