H.E. Jean-Pierre Mazery was elected Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Order on 16 April, 2005.

His office includes the offices of the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is at the head of the Chancellery and its related offices. He is responsible for the Diplomatic Missions of the Order and relations with the National Associations. He is responsible for the representation of the Order to third parties, the carrying out of policy and the internal administration of the Order, as well as the coordination of the activities of the Government of the Order.

The Order of St. John was founded before the taking of Jerusalem in 1099 by the armies of the First Crusade. It began as a monastic community. By the Bull of 15 February, 1113, Pope Paschal II approved the confraternity of the Hospital of St. John, placed it under the protection of the Holy See, and ensured its right of freely electing its heads without any interference from any other ecclesiastical or any law authority. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII restored the Grandmastership and the honours of a Cardinal attaching to it.

The Order of Malta is a persona mixta, a religious military Order of the Catholic Church. It is the only Order of Knighthood, where the Knights are also Religious, bound by the three monastic vows of Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty.

The Order of St. John boasts rich history with the Knights going down in history, gloriously defending Christianity. The invasion of the Ottoman Empire to Western Europe was put to rout in the siege of the island of Malta in 1565. The Knights gave a helping hand to the Bulgarian people on more than one occasion. After liberating Vidin on the Danube, they suffered heavy losses in the battle of Nikopol side by side with Bulgarian patriots to defend Bulgaria and Europe.

The order was recognized by the international community as a sovereign state in 1961 with a seat at the Malta Palace at 68 Via Condotti and the Villa on the Aventine. The embassy of the Order to the Holy See has diplomatic relations with 93 countries and has representations to the Council of Europe, UNESCO, and other international organizations as well as permanent observer status at the UN. In WWI and WWII the Order was engaged in large-scale charity activities, while over the recent decades it has provided humanitarian aid to Kosovo, India, Mozambique, Macedonia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Peru, Salvador, Afghanistan, Iraq and Indonesia.

In his ceremony speech, H.E. Jean-Pierre Mazery gave an overview of the glorious history of the Order of Malta, its social, healthcare and humanitarian activities, respect for human rights and protection of human values, promotion of peace and cooperation between the peoples. He broached the relations of the Order with the “dearest Bulgarian nation”, emphasizing on the friendly visit paid by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov to His Most Eminent Highness, the Prince and Grand Master Fra’ Andrew Bertie in the Magistral Palace of the Order in Rome in 2005 and the follow-up state visit in March last, paid by the Grand Master in Sofia at the invitation of President Parvanov.

The Grand Chancellor said further that at the recommendation of His Holiness, the Order deems as pivotal the perspective of renewing the relations between different Christian denominations, of resuming the dialogue between cultures and religions, giving as an example the special love and friendly feelings for Bulgaria of Monsignor Angelo Roncally, who was elected Pope John XXIII.

“The country, which through its accession to Europe today resumes an ancient historical dialogue with the rest of Europe is undoubtedly to play a key role between the two souls of the Continent – the eastern and the western,” H.E. Jean-Pierre Mazery said further concluding his academic speech. The Grand Chancellor extended his thanks to the Principal of the State Institute of Library Studies and Information Technologies and the Congregation, on his behalf and on behalf of the Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for the high appreciation.

After the official part, the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta, H.E. Jean-Pierre Mazery and the Principal of the State Institute, Prof. Stoyan Denchev planted a fruit-tree in the compound of the school.