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Originally Posted by Ederico Figallo
Can we have this flag:
It is of the Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta (Sovereign Military Order of Malta), ergo the Knights of Malta.
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The plain white cross on red is used in heraldry as the shield of the order, but I did not know it was used like that as a flag. The Danish flag is offset to the masthead, and I thought I could remember a badge superimposed as a difference for Savoy. I believe that the SMO Malta has the prior right to the shield without difference and uses it as such.
The Grand Master quarters it with his family arms, and bailiffs of the Order, as well as cardinals who are members of the Order, may use is in chief (sometimes called "the chief of religion").
I know that the emblems only of the Knights of Malta (a religious order) and of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcre are permitted to be combined with Roman Catholic ecclesiastical insignia.
(Heraldry in the Catholic Church, Bruno Bernard Heim, van Duran, 1978.)
If a difference were needed, I should have thought a Maltese cross surmounted by a coronet of eight arches (i.e. with five showing in its representation) would be more usual.