INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Welcome to the official website of the OSMTH Scottish Knight Templars Preceptory of St. George – Bulgaria.

The history of the Knight Templars in Scottland (SKT) is a matter of continuous current research by our members, and many other associates, who like us are also interested in this period of Scottish History. We assert our claim to be the last of the true Knight Templar Order.

The Knights Templar did not end in 1307. In 1128, Hugh De Paynes, the first Grand Master of the original Knight Templars, came to Scotland to visit family.The family he came to visit was King David I.

King David I was the first Grand Prior in Scotland for the Templars.The main role of the Order in Scotland was to provide soldiers to protect the pilgrimage routes to and from the Holy Lands from bandits. On Friday 13th of October 1307,the a warrant was issued for the arrest of all Knight Templars across all of France and the rest of Europe by orders of King Philip of France and the Pope.Many of the Templars fled France and other countries and seeked refuge in Scotland, which was ruled by King Robert the Bruce and excommunicated from the Catholic Church, where the Order manage to survive right up to present day.

Under the Sovereign Grand Master, King Robert the Bruce, the Knight Templars fought with great distinction at the Battle of Bannockburn where they broke the English right flank with their horse-backed charge and scattered the English.

Templarism in Scotland has been active and in research documents from 1560, later in 1745, and again in 1962, to modern day. The Charter that gave us our Status as an Autonomous Grand Priory, this in Perpetuity was ratified by head of world Templars, the late Chef Mondial HSE Baron Anton Leuprech Rapp KGCT in Edinburgh in 1962, and again ratified in Edinburgh in 1971,again in 1982, and agreed by the Organization of the Grand Council of Grand Priories, and other Templar Orders present in London in 1996. This said Charter was legally registered in Geneva, Switzerland and is still legally valid.

Besides our Autonomous Grand Priory Charter, we hold forever the Title; Chef Mondial, or head of the world Knights Templar Autonomous Grand Priories. This Charter left in Perpetuity to the Scottish Grand Priory by the late Chef Mondial, Chev Baron Anton Lepreucht Rapp, KGCTJ in his will on his demise registered in Switzerland in 1980.

We Scottish Knight Templars, in the Order’s formal dress of white mantles, were present in St.Peter's Square on the 24th of April 2005 for Pope Benedict's First Mass following which we attended the Papal Audience on Wednesday the 27th as Knights Templar. My thanks to the Malta contingent who are a credit to the Order, and our Christian Faith, also to the many Italian well-wishers for their support for us as true Knights Templar.

As an Order of Ecumenical Christian Templars, we also personally called on the Grand Masters of the Papal Orders, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, His Eminence Carlo Cardinal Furno KHS.

These are events the like of which have not been seen at St. Peters since the 13th Century. We now await His Holiness's response to our Order's various letters regarding the future of the Knight Templars with regard to the Chinon Document found in the Vatican Secret Archives signed and sealed by Pope Clement V, which clears the Knights Templar of all accusations made against us.