The Order of Saint Agatha () is a State order established on 5 June 1923 by the Grand and General Council of the Republic of San Marino. It is named after Saint Agatha, on whose feast day 5 February, Pope Clement XII reestablished the sovereignty of the republic in 1740.
The Order is awarded to foreign nationals deserving of recognition for charitable or other services to the Republic of San Marino.
Conferred by the Grand and General Council on the proposal of the Most Excellent Regency of the Republic of San Marino, the Order comprises 5 grades: Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer and Knight.
The badge of the Order is a cross with curved ends enamelled white and edged in gilt. 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 motto Bene Merenti (To a well-deserving person). The insignia suspends by a ribbon with five stripes of white, crimson and yellow.
The Order of San Marino is the next higher in order of precedence.
Grades The Order is presented in five grades: Grand Cross (Cavaliere Gran Croce) Grand Officer (Cavaliere Grande Ufficiale) Commander (Cavaliere Ufficiale Maggiore o Commendatore) Officer (Cavaliere Ufficiale) Knight (Cavaliere)
Order of Saint Agatha ribbon barsKnightOfficerCommanderGrand OfficerGrand Cross
Recipients
Prominent people awarded the Order of Saint Agatha Year of awardRecipient – Prince Dominique de La Rochefoucauld-Montbel – Cardinal Pietro Gasparri – Dino Grandi – Giovanni Marinelli – Giulio Onesti – Baron Robert Rothschild1925 – Edgar Erskine Hume1932 – Pope Paul VI1934 – Edward VII1934 – Edward VIII1935 British India – Maharajah Jagatjit Singh1937 – Sir Edmund Gabriel1944 – Charles Poletti1946 – Judge Juvenal Marchisio1948 – Giulio Andreotti1937 – Valery Larbaud1956 – Avery Brundage1956 – Sir John Wilson1958 – Giovanni Spadolini1958 – Vincent Delpuech1958 – Roger Motz1958 – Lucien Cooremans2002 – Dario Fo2010 – Prince Albert II2012 – Sophia Loren2013 – Ban Ki-moon2019 – Sergey Lavrovtass.ru2020 – Theresa, Baroness May of Maidenhead2020 – Jeremy Hunt2021 – Nadey Hakim2021 – Andrew Rosindell2021 – George Holmes2022 – Lisa Cameron2022 – Norman Foster2023 – Sheryll Murray2025 – Domenico Bellantone, Consul General of Italy in the United Kingdom2025 – Inigo Lambertini, Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom2025 – Dominic Johnson, Baron Johnson of Lainston
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 Saint Agatha, 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, 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.
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