Catholic Knighthood

Last week's news from the Vatican announced that His Holiness had bestowed The Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great upon Nicholas Frederic

Brady, Manhattan financier. Mr. & Mrs. Brady have been in Italy, and their U. S. friends could only cable them their applause, for it was most fitting that of the handful of papal knightly orders that of St. Gregory the Great go to Mr. Brady. Pope Gregory XVI (1765-1846) created the order in 1831 and put it under the patronage of that first and greater Gregory (c. 540-604)--to reward the civil and military virtues of the subjects of the Papal States. But now, when the Papal domain is only a patch of land at Rome, the knightly requirements have been loosed by the Popes and made applicable to all the adherents of their spiritual hegemony. Nicholas Frederic Brady, Grand Cross Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great does not become, by the investiture, a citizen of the Pope's Roman temporal state. He remains a good U. S. citizen, appropriately rewarded spiritually for his great charities to Roman Catholic institutions, for his great courtesies to Roman Catholic dignitaries.

Only two knightly orders of the Papal court surpass Mr. Brady's Order of St. Gregory the Great. They are:

1) Supreme Order of Christ instituted in 1319 as an active religious order for Portuguese knights and preserved today only as a titular papal honor. Though no U. S. personage holds the cross of this order, others honored with it include onetime (1919-22) President Dr. Epitacio Pessoa of Brazil and Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma, Consort of Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg (TIME, April 23).

2) Order of Pins IX intended fittingly to reward noble and conspicuous deeds meritorious before the Church and stimulating in their effect upon society; conferred also upon non-Catholics. Sole U. S. member is James Joseph Phelan of Boston, created Knight Commander in 1926.

Lesser Orders are:

1) Order of St. Sylvester, reputedly the oldest and once most prized honor, of which there are no U. S. holders. In 1926 Pius XI created His Excellency the Hon. Charles Dunbar Burgess King, President of the Negro Republic of Liberia, Knight Grand Cross of the Order.

2) Order of the Golden Militia (also called the Golden Spur) limited to a world membership of 100 knights. In the U. S. no holder; in Great Britain the Marquess of Bute, lord of more than 117,000 acres.

3) Order of the Holy Sepulchre, reputedly founded by Charlemagne. Edward Hearn, past national president of the Knights of Columbus, now living in Italy, and Frederic Kenkel of St. Louis are U. S. holders.

For Roman Catholics who cannot attain the eminence of the orders, there are three medals of recognition.