ORDER OF ST. JOSEPH.
The Grand Duke Ferdinand III. founded this Order on the 19th March, 1807, being then only Grand Duke of Wirzburg. After Tuscany was restored to him in 1814, he carried the Order with him, and renewed it in 1817. It since forms the second Order of Knighthood in Tuscany.
As an Order of Merit, in the fullest acceptation of the term, it is conferred indiscriminately on ecclesiastics and laymen, military and civil, natives and foreigners, though care is usually taken that the recipient should belong to the Catholic Church.
The number of the first class (Grand Crosses) is, exclusive of foreigners, limited to two hundred, who must all belong to high families. The second class (Commanders) is fixed at thirty; they receive hereditary nobility with the decoration, while the third class (Knights) is limited to sixty members, who receive personal nobility with the Order.
The reigning Duke is always Grand Master.
The badge (No. 4) represents, in the middle of the obverse, the figure of St. Joseph, with the legend: ' Ubique similis' (Everywhere the same), and of the reverse the letters: 'S.J. F.' (Sancto Josepho Ferdinandus) (dedicated by Ferdinand to Saint Joseph), and the year '1807.' It is worn, by the first class, by a broad ribbon across the right shoulder towards the left side, accompanied by the star, (No. 3) on the left breast. Eccleslastics of the first class wear it by a narrower ribbon round the neck. 'The second class suspend it also round the neck, while the third class wear it by a much narrower ribbon at the button-hole.
The Grand Master and the hereditary Prince alone are privileged to adorn the decoration with precious stones.
