The funeral of the Ven. Bailiff Fra’ Silvio Goffredo Martelli, Grand Prior Emeritus of the Grand Priory of Lombardy and Venice, who died last Sunday at the age of 95, was held today in the Parish of Nostra Signora delle Grazie e San Girolamo in Castelletto, Genoa.

Received into the Order in 1985, Fra’ Silvio Goffredo Martelli gave his Vow of Obedience in 2005. He pronounced his simple vows in 2009 and three years after the solemn vows. Awarded the Grand Cross in 2012, he was elevated to the rank of Bailiff in 2016 at the conclusion of his mandate as head of the Grand Priory of Lombardy and Venice, which he served first as Procurator and then as Grand Prior between 2009 and 2016.

He was responsible for the restoration of the church of San Giovanni Battista dei Cavalieri di Malta in Venice, better known to the Venetians as the church of San Giovanni di Malta and a part of the Grand Priory headquarters in 2013-2014, a fundamental passage in the renovation and enrichment of the Order of St. John buildings in Venice.

In recalling “with esteem and affection a brother who shared with us so many moments of religious life”, Padre Aldo Campone O.F.M., Conventual Chaplain ad honorem of the Order of Malta, paid homage to a “long life, dedicated to family, to work, to religion and to his neighbour, a life sustained by duty, carried out with faithfulness and conscience”.

Together with the family of Fra’ Silvio Goffredo Martelli, present at the funeral, officiated by the parish priest Don Davide Bernini, also Conventual Chaplain ad honorem, were the Lieutenant of the Grand Master Fra’ Marco Luzzago, the Grand Commander, Fra’ Ruy de Villas-Boas, Fra’ Angelo Chiastellaro, and officers of the Grand Priory of Lombardy and Venice led by the Procurator Clemente Riva di Sanseverino.