The Sovereign Order had long been held in high esteem by the Russian Czars.  Emperor Paul now provided the Order with properties and sizable annual revenues.  He also gave the Order one of the large and beautiful estates in Russia - the Vorontov Palace in Saint Petersburg.  The emperor changed its name to the Palace of Malta, and commanded that a magnificent Roman Catholic Chapel be built there.  Consequently, the Knights of the Order, formally convening a Chapter General, and making the appropriate modifications of pertinent statues of the Order, elected Czar Paul head of the Sovereign Order on October 27, 1798.  (A Chapter General is the formal assembly of all Knights of the Sovereign Order, and is therefore the Order's supreme authoritative and constitutional body.)  Notified of the election while in the Monastery of Cassini near Florence on November 5th, Pope Pius VI bestowed his approbation, sanction and paternal apostolic benediction on the new 70th Grand Master of the Order.

 

Von Hompesch, disgraced by the surrender of Malta, but still a loyal Knight who loved the Order, formally abdicated and sent the Order's precious relic - the hand of Saint John - to the new Grand Master.  Writing to Francis II of Austria in whoe realm he now resided in exile, Von Hompesch said:  "May you bring this [the relic] to the attention of your most intimate ally, the Emperor of all the Russias, under whose powerful auspices the Order will be re-born, whose protection I was the first to invoke and whom I shall be the first to bless for his general efforts for the good of The Religion.  With this dignified statement, Von Hompesch dispatched the relic of Saint John the Baptist to Saint Petersburg, where it arrived on October 12th, and the Czar, dressed in his coronation robe, bowed to the ground before it."