The Knights of Malta marked its 900th birthday

Dom Duarte of Portugal (c) attends a ceremony to mark the 900th birthday of the Knights of Malta, one of the most peculiar organizations in the world at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on February 9, 2013. A Mass in the basilica and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, himself a member of the onetime chivalrous order drawn from Europe's nobility. Some 4,000 people, volunteers in neon orange civil protection suits, children in red berets and members each draped in a black cloak with a white, eight-pointed Maltese Cross on the front , processed through St. Peter's Square and into the basilica for the Mass marking the 900th anniversary of the order's recognition by the Holy See. The Knights are at once a Roman Catholic religious order, an aid group that runs soup kitchens, hospitals and ambulance services around the globe, and a sovereign entity that prints its own passports and enjoys diplomatic relations with 104 countries Photo by Eric Vandeville/ABACAPRESS.COM