The Order of Saint Agatha ( it, Ordine Equestre di Sant'Agata) is a

State order A state order, or national order, is an order bestowed by a sovereign state as part of a national honours system.https://www.pressreader.com/lebanon/the-daily-star-lebanon/20180724/281573766486143 These orders, conferred for the merit of the recip ...

established on 5 June 1923 by the

Grand and General Council The Grand and General Council ( it, Consiglio Grande e Generale) is the parliament of San Marino. The council has 60 members elected for a five-year term. History From the fifth century San Marino was ruled by an assembly composed by all t ...

of the Republic of

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

. It is named after

Saint Agatha Agatha of Sicily () is a Christian saint. Her feast is on 5 February. Agatha was born in Catania, part of the Roman Province of Sicily, and was martyred . She is one of several virgin martyrs who are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Ma ...

, on whose feast day 5 February,

Pope Clement XII Pope Clement XII ( la, Clemens XII; it, Clemente XII; 7 April 16526 February 1740), born Lorenzo Corsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1730 to his death in February 1740. Clement presided over the ...

reestablished the sovereignty of the republic in 1740. The order is presented to foreign nationals who have positively contributed charitable and other services for the benefit of the republic deserving of recognition. The award is conferred by the Grand and General Council on the proposal of the Most Excellent Regency of the Republic of San Marino. It has 5 ranks: Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer and Knight. The badge of the order is a golden cross enamelled in white. It is charged on one side with a round golden shield bearing the effigy of Saint Agatha and includes the inscription Sant'Agata Prottetrice (Saint Agatha Protector). On the other side is written the epigraph Bene Merenti (to a well-deserving person). The cross is hung on a ribbon with five stripes of white, crimson and yellow. The

Order of San Marino The Order of San Marino or Civil and Military Equestrian Order of Saint Marinus ( it, Ordine Equestre Civile e Militare di San Marino) is an Order of Merit of San Marino. Established 13 August 1859, the order is presented for outstanding civil or ...

is the next higher in order of precedence.

Grades

The order is presented in five ranks: #Knight of Grand Cross (''Cavaliere Gran Croce'') #Knight Grand Officer (''Cavaliere Grande Ufficiale'') #Knight Major Officer or Commander (''Cavaliere Ufficiale Maggiore'' o ''Commendatore'') #Knight Officer (''Cavaliere Ufficiale'') #Knight (''Cavaliere'')

Recipients

Prominent people who have been awarded the Order of Saint Agatha {, class="wikitable" !Year of award !Recipient , - , , , , –

Pietro Gasparri Pietro Gasparri, GCTE (5 May 1852 – 18 November 1934) was a Roman Catholic cardinal, diplomat and politician in the Roman Curia and the signatory of the Lateran Pacts. He served also as Cardinal Secretary of State under Popes Benedict XV a ...

, - , , , , –

Dino Grandi Dino Grandi (4 June 1895 – 21 May 1988), 1st Conte di Mordano, was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament. Early life Born at Mordano, province of Bologna, Grandi was ...

, - , , , , – Giulio Onesti , - , , , , –

Robert Rothschild Baron Robert Rothschild (16 December 1911, in Brussels – 3 December 1998, in London) was a Belgian diplomat. He helped to draft the Treaty of Rome of 1957, the foundation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958. Biography His fat ...

, - , 1925 , , , –

Edgar Erskine Hume Edgar Erskine Hume CBE FRSE MD (26 December 1889 – 24 January 1952) was an American physician, Major General in the U.S Army medical corps, writer and amateur ornithologist. At the time of his retirement from the Army he was the most decorate ...

, - , 1932 , ,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

, - , 1934 , , –

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second chil ...

, - , 1934 , , –

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...

, - , 1935 , , Jagatjit Singh , - , 1937 , , –

Edmund Vivian Gabriel Sir Edmund Vivian Gabriel (28 March 1875 – 13 February 1950) was a British civil servant, army officer, courtier and art collector. Biography Edmund Vivian Gabriel was born on 28 March 1875. Educated at Emmanuel College, University of Cambrid ...

, - , 1944 , , , –

Charles Poletti Charles Poletti (July 2, 1903 – August 8, 2002) was an American lawyer and politician. He became the 46th governor of New York in December 1942, and was the first Italian-American governor in the United States. Born in Barre, Vermont to Ital ...

, - , 1946 , , , – Juvenal P. Marchisio , - , 1948 , , , –

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democracy ...

, - , 1937 , , –

Valery Larbaud Valery Larbaud (29 August 1881 – 2 February 1957) was a French writer and poet. Life He was born in Vichy, the only child of a pharmacist. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up by his mother and aunt. His father had been owne ...

, - , 1956 , , , –

Avery Brundage Avery Brundage (; September 28, 1887 – May 8, 1975) was an American sports administrator who served as the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972. The only American and only non-European to attain that p ...

, - , 1956 , , –

Sir John Wilson, 2nd Baronet Sir John Mitchell Harvey Wilson, 2nd Baronet (10 October 1898Bateman, Robert. ''Stamp collectors' who's who''. London: Stanley Gibbons, 1960, p. 94. – 6 February 1975) was a British philatelist and Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection ...

, - , 1958 , , , –

Giovanni Spadolini Giovanni Spadolini (21 June 1925 – 4 August 1994) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as the 44th prime minister of Italy. He had been a leading figure in the Republican Party and the first head of a government to not be a ...

, - , 1958 , , , – Vincent Delpuech , - , 1958 , , , – Roger Motz , - , 1958 , , , –

Lucien Cooremans Lucien Georges François Philippe Cooremans (1 September 1899 – 22 February 1985) was a Belgian liberal politician and burgomaster of Brussels. Lucien Cooremans was a lawyer, journalist and professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. ...

, - , 2002 , , , –

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

, - , 2010 , , , –

Albert II, Prince of Monaco Albert II – Website of the Palace of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, since 2005. Albert was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and he is the second child and only son of Prince Rai ...

, - , 2012 , , , –

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

, - , 2013 , , , –

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Ministe ...

, - , 2019 , , , –

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...

, - , 2020 , , –

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

, - , 2020 , , –

Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...

, - , 2021 , ,

Nadey Hakim Nadey S. Hakim FASMBS (born 9 April 1958), is a British-Lebanese professor of transplantation surgery at Imperial College London and general surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic London. He is also a writer, musician and sculptor, known for kidney a ...

, - , 2021 , , –

Andrew Rosindell Andrew Richard Rosindell MP (; born 17 March 1966) is a British Conservative politician. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Romford constituency in Greater London in 2001. He has been the international director of the European ...

, - , 2021 , , – George Holmes , - , 2022 , , – Lisa Cameron

Design

The Orders design is made up of a white-enamelled cross backed by a green-enamelled wreath of oak and laurel leaves. The central disc bears a painted image of

, the Orders namesake, surrounded by a white-enamelled ring. The ring bears the words; "SANT AGATA PROTETTRICE" (Saint Agatha Protector), while the bottom has a gold laurel wreath. The reverse of the badge shows a gold representation of the Coat of Arms of San Marino, surrounded by the Orders motto: Bene Merenti. The ribbon of the Order is actually the colours of the

flag of San Marino The state and war flag of San Marino is formed by two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and light blue with the national coat of arms superimposed in the center; the coat of arms has a shield (featuring three towers on three peaks) with a c ...

, used between 1465 and 1797. The ribbon is made up of the three colours, with a larger field of burgundy in the center, edged with smaller bands of white and orange on both sides. File:Order of St Agatha 8.png, Grand Officer set. File:Order of St Agatha 1.png, Grand Officer set. File:Order of St Agatha 5.png, Star of the Grand Officer grade of the order. File:Order of St Agatha 2.png, Reverse of the insignia of the Grand Officer grade. File:Order of St Agatha 6.png, Close-up of the inner lid of the case of the Grand Officer showing the logo of Cravanzola, c.1940 File:Order of St Agatha - Commander.png, Commanders class of the order. File:Order of St Agatha - Commander set.png, Set of the Commander of the order.

References

External links

Honours
- website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Economic Cooperation and Telecommunications (of San Marino)
Laws establishing and amending the statutes of the Order of Saint Agatha

Repubblica di San Marino
{{in lang, it Orders, decorations, and medals of San Marino