The Grand Magistry announces, with deep sorrow, the return to the Father’s house of His Excellency the Lieutenant of the Grand Master, Fra’ Marco Luzzago, who passed away today at Villa Ciccolini (Sforzacosta, Macerata province in Italy), following a sudden illness. According to Article 17 of the Constitution of the Sovereign Order of Malta, the Grand Commander, Fra’ Ruy Gonçalo do Valle Peixoto de Villas-Boas has assumed the functions of Lieutenant ad interim and will remain head of the Sovereign Order until the election of the new head of the Order.

Fra’ Marco Luzzago was elected head of the Sovereign Order of Malta on 8 November 2020.

Born in 1950 in Brescia, Fra’ Marco Luzzago, after completing his studies at the institute of the Franciscans in Brescia, studied medicine at the Universities of Padua and Parma. He was then asked to manage his family’s property interests.

He joined the Sovereign Order of Malta in 1975 in the Grand Priory of Lombardy and Venice and took his Solemn religious Vows in 2003. He began attending the Order of Malta’s international pilgrimages to Lourdes and the national pilgrimages to Assisi and Loreto. From 2010 he dedicated his life completely to the Order of Malta, moving to the Marche region to care for one of the Order’s Commanderies. From 2011 he was Commander of Justice in the Grand Priory of Rome, where he held the position of Delegate of the Northern Marche region and head of the library. Between 2017 and 2020, he was Councillor of the Order of Malta’s Italian Association.

The Lying in State of Fra’ Marco Luzzago, Lieutenant of the Grand Master, will be held in the Church of Santa Maria in Aventino, in the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Magistral Villa complex in Rome.

To allow all those who wish to pay their respects to the head of the Sovereign Order of Malta, the Church of Santa Maria in Aventino will be open on Friday from 4 p.m to 6 p.m.

Saturday 11 June, Sunday 12 June and Monday 13 June it will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entrance from Piazza Cavalieri di Malta, 4 Rome.

The solemn funeral of Fra’ Marco Luzzago will take place on Tuesday 14 June at 11 a.m., in the Basilica dei Santi Bonifacio ed Alessio in Rome.