Order of the Wing of St. Michael

Coat of arms of the Order of the Wing of St. Michael

The Order of the Wing of St. Michael (Ordem de São Miguel da Ala) is one of the three dynastic orders of the House of Braganza .

Ranks

The Order of the Wing of St. Michael has the following four ranks:

• Grand Cross
• Grand Officer
• Commander
• Knight

history

The occasion for the foundation of the Order of the Wing of St. Michael was the victories of King Alfonso I in 1147 at Ourique and Santarém over the King of León and the Moors . According to legend, the Archangel Michael had intervened in the battle when his winged arm with the sword appeared in the sky.

The order was founded by Pope Alexander III. approved and subordinated to the Cistercian Abbot of Alcobaça . The first knights to be awarded the order were a group of Knights of Jacob (Santiago Knights), who also formed the king's bodyguard. The order has survived to this day as a dynastic decoration of honor.

In 1630 the Cistercians confirmed once more that the order was subordinate to the Abbot of Alcobaça and that the King of Portugal held the office of Grand Master. In 1848 King Miguel I of Portugal founded with the permission of Popes Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. the Order of the Wing of St. Michael new. In 1986 the Holy See and the Portuguese Republic confirmed that Dom Duarte III Pio , the current Duke of Braganza , is both the direct descendant of King Miguel I and the Grand Master of the Order of the Wing of Saint Michael.

Like the Order of Annunciations , the Order of Mauritius and Lazarus and the Order of Vila Viçosa , the Order of the Wing of St. Michael also has a brotherhood as the social and religious part of the Order. In 1990, their statutes were revised on the basis of the Royal Brotherhood of the Holy Eucharist of Santarém . Orders and titles of the wing of St. Michael are awarded by the House of Braganza only through this brotherhood.

In addition to the Order of the Wing of St. Michael, the Order of Vila Viçosa and the Order of St. Isabel are dynastic orders of the House of Braganza.

A few years ago a Portuguese MP, Nuno da Câmara Pereira, fado singer and President of the Monarchist People's Party of Portugal (PMP), which was not supported by the Duke of Braganza, legally registered a private association under the name Assoçião Ordem de São Miguel de Ala, is currently busy a grotesque trademark dispute the courts of Portugal. The Order remains unmentioned on the website of the House of Braganza during the ongoing proceedings. The People's Monarchist Party (PMP) does not recognize the legitimacy of the current pretender to the throne, but supports one of his cousins. The dispute between the monarchist parties in Portugal goes back to the 1830s (see Miguelistenkrieg ) and in 1910 contributed to the fact that the monarchy was replaced by the republic.

Web links

• Ordenskreuz.com
• Titles and Official Styles . HRH Dom Duarte, Duke of Braganza. Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms.
• History of the Royal Order of Saint Michael of the Wing . Reference, as told by HE Dr. Carlos Evaristo, Vice-Chancellor and Delegate for the Foreign Delegation of the Royal Brotherhood of the Order of Saint Michael of the Wing. These statements were recently made by Carlos Evaristo on a debate on the Order of St. Michael of the Wing held on the forum 'rec.heraldry', with the participation of Guy Stair Sainty, Pier Felice degli Uberti, David Pritchard. Recorded by Prof. Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren, former North American Representative of the Foreign Delegation of the Royal Order of St. Michael of the Wing.
• Other Institutions of Chivalric Character . * International Commission for Orders of Chivalry (ICOC), President Prof. Pier Felice degli Uberti.

literature

• Johann Georg Krünitz : Economic Encyclopedia . 1773-1858.
• COMMISSIONE INTERNAZIONALE PERMANENTE PER LO STUDIO DEGLI ORDINI CAVALLERESCHI, Registro degli Ordini Cavallereschi: Relazione della Commissione internazionale permanente per lo studio degli Ordini Cavallereschi, Bologna, 2001-2006.
• Evaristo, Carlos. Il Reale Il Reale Ordine di San Michele dell'Ala. degli Uberti, Pier Felice. And Maria Loredana Pinott (Eds.). Agigento 16–18 November 2007. Convegno Internazionale “Storia, funzione, valori e attualita degli Ordini Cavallereschi e di Merito: I sistemi premiali nel Mondo e nell'Italia pre-unitaria sino al moderno Stato federalista.” International Commission for orders of Chivalry (ICOC). Pp. 232-36.
• Evaristo, Carlos. The Real Ordine of San Michele dell'Ala. Il Mondo del Cavaliere Rivista Internazionale sugli Ordini Cavallereschi - Sommario n ° 28 - ottobre-dicembre 2007 pp. 103–111. (about the Duke's honors).
• Evaristo, Carlos (2002). The Royal Brotherhood of Saint Michael of the Wing: History and Statutes: A Portuguese Devotion to Saint Michael, Angel of Portugal and of Peace . (Fátima, Portugal: Oureana Historic and Cultural Foundation)
• Montells y Galan, Jose Maria de and Escudero y Diaz-Madronero, Alfredo. 2006. La Real Hermandad de la Orden de San Miguel del Ala . Tesoro Ecuestre: Las Ordenes Dinasticas de Caballeria. Sociedad Heraldica Espanola, pp. 82-84.
• Sainty, Guy Stair. 2006. Royal Order of Saint Michael of the Wing . World Orders of Knighthood & Merit. Guy Stair Sainty (editor) and Rafal Heydel-Mankoo (deputy editor). United Kingdom: Burke's Peerage & Gentry. 2 vol. (2100 pp). pp. 1777-1780.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. www.casarealportuguesa.org