ANNUNZIATA, Order of the Most Holy Annunciation. - The Supreme Order of the Most Holy A., among the oldest in Europe, was the highest of the Savoy monarchy. Founded by Amadeus VI in 1364 under the name of the Order of the Collar, it changed into a religious-military confraternity, according to the custom of the East, when the founder hastened in 1365 to Constantinople to the aid of his cousin John V Palaiologos. It is dedicated to the Virgin, and therefore the knights, who represent the fifteen mysteries, are obliged to common prayers and entitled to common suffrages, while in the charterhouse of Pierre Châtel, established as the church of the Order by the testament of the Green Count, fifteen Fathers shall pray for the knights living and deceased. The Order of the Collar later changed its name to that of the "Collar of the A." with the statutes of Charles III the Good.
The first statutes dictated by the founder were lost. The oldest now extant are therefore those of Amadeus VIII of 1409, in 14 paragraphs written at Châtillon, to which four others were added in 1434. They prescribe faithful service to the prince, mutual assistance also of a spiritual kind, and arbitration for every dispute among the knights. On Sept. 13, 1518, Charles III, who may be considered the second founder and principal legislator of the Order, raised the knights "of name and arms," and "without stain," from fifteen to twenty, adding to the commemoration of the fifteen mysteries of Our Lady that of the five wounds of Jesus. On Oct. 18, 1577, Emmanuel Philibert did not count the Grand Master and the hereditary prince among the twenty, prescribed Catholic orthodoxy and nobility tracing back to the ancestors, granted the right to a senate seat, financial and judicial exemptions, and subsidies: privileges confirmed in 1620 by Charles Emmanuel I (who in 1607 transferred the church of the Order from Pierre Châtel, which had passed to France, to the Camaldolese of Turin) and then by Charles Emmanuel II. Charles Albert in 1840 renewed the statutes, confirming the character and privileges of the Order but abolishing the tributary and forensic ones, and established its religious seat in the charterhouse of Collegno. Victor Emmanuel II removed in 1869 the noble exclusivity, requiring for admission exceptional services in the high offices of the State; and Victor Emmanuel III, with the reform of 1924, did not include in the twenty knights the Sovereign Grand Master, the hereditary prince, the ecclesiastical dignitaries and foreigners.
The insignia were at first fifteen collars of gilded silver-gilt greyhound, purchased by Amadeus VI from a goldsmith of Avignon, whose clasp consisted of three love-knots of double loop, with the motto "F.E.R.T." In 1518, having adopted the personal collar of Charles I, formed of fifteen knots alternating with as many white roses, Duke Charles III hung upon it a medallion with the openwork image of the Annunciation of Mary, to whom he consecrated the Order, preserved to our own days as the "great ceremonial collar," to be worn with a plaque, fastened to the left side of the chest, likewise gilded, with the effigy of the A., in a frame of flames; commonly replaced by a "small collar" of simpler form. The habit is of amaranth color, with silver embroidery, lined in blue. The ceremonial, prescribed by Charles III, conforms to that of the Golden Fleece. The knights have the title of "Excellency" and of "Cousin" of the sovereign king; they precede the offices of the State, immediately after the cardinals, with the right to military honors. The collars, on which are engraved the names of the various holders, are returned upon the death of the knight.
The feast of the Order is celebrated on March 25, the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mary.
Bibliography4 works
Giuseppe Dalla Torre