The funeral of Fra’ Matthew Festing, 79th Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, will be held on Friday afternoon at St John's Co-Cathedral, marking the first time for at least 246 years that a grand master is buried in the church crypt.

Fra’ Matthew was grand master of the Sovereign Order of Malta from 2008 to 2017 and died in Malta on November 12, aged 71.  

Fra’ Matthew Festing.

He will be the 13th Grand Master to be laid to rest in the frescoed crypt – the burial place of L’Isle-Adam, who brought the Order to Malta in 1530, and La Valette, who won the 1565 Great Siege and founded the city of Valletta.

The last grand master to be buried in the crypt was Vasconcellos in 1623, although it is understood, despite a lack of documentation, that it is also the resting place, in an unmarked grave, of Ximenes, who died in 1775, 23 years before the knights were ousted from Malta by Napoleon's invasion.

Friday's Requiem Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Pope’s Special Delegate to the Order of Malta and concelebrated by Archbishop Charles Scicluna.

The Lieutenant of the Grand Master, Fra’ Marco Luzzago will attend the ceremony. 

The co-cathedral’s crypt , was carved out of the rock for underground burial in the 16th century. It was opened to the public last year following a €500,000 restoration project that lasted 13 years.

Who are the Grand Masters buried at St John's crypt?

• Phillipe Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (1521-1534)
• Pietro del Ponte (1534-1535)
• Juan d’Homedes (1536-1553)
• Claude de la Sengle (1553-1557)
• Jean de Valette-Parisot (1557-1568)
• Pietro del Monte (1568 to 1572)
• Jean l’Eveque de la Cassiere (1572 to 1581)
• Hugues Loubenx de Verdale (1581-1595)
• Martin Garzes (1595-1601)
• Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622)
• Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos (1622-1623)
• Francesco Ximenes de Texada (1773-1775) in an unmarked tomb