To some heraldic scholars, it represents a refined geometric expression of the cross formy, or croix pattée. To others, it is an evolution of the cross potent identified with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Though its origins are still debated today, the beautiful geometric symbol that came to represent Christianity's oldest order of chivalry may have been an Arabic motif rooted in Muslim mysticism. As can be seen in this geometric construction, its angles and lines might represent a star as well as a cross. The design appears in Saracen and Moorish architecture throughout the Arab world, in structures that antedate by centuries the foundation of the Order of the Hospital. The symmetrical "Maltese Cross" is seen in ancient mosques in Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad. One of its earliest architectural uses in Europe was in Sicily, where it appears as a repeating motif in the splendid cloister courtyard of Monreale Abbey, built during the reign of a twelfth-century Norman King of Sicily, William II. (Henry II's daughter, Joan, wed the Sicilian sovereign in 1177, and the church's English legacy is represented in its mosaic icon of Thomas Becket.) The octagonal cross's appearance in the cloister is not surprising if one remembers that Monreale's artisans and architects were Saracen Arabs and Byzantine Greeks. By the thirteenth century, the Cross of Malta was a common heraldic symbol in England, France, Germany and Poland.

To the Knights of Malta, its four arms represent the cross on which Jesus suffered, while the eight points symbolise the Beatitudes given on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10):

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

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