Brief Biography
Francisco Ximenes de Texada inherited severe financial difficulties when he became Grand Master.
Sources: Order of Malta: The Grand Masters; Wikipedia: Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller.
Life and service to the Order
His short rule ended amid unrest, including the Rising of the Priests in Malta in 1775.
On Malta the Order developed hospitals, fortifications and a maritime presence while governing the islands. Its religious and charitable purposes continued alongside these public responsibilities.
Grand Master Francesco Ximenes (1773-75) was a Spaniard and his reign was brief, remembered mostly for what has become known as the uprising of tile priests, an abortive rebellion led by a simple-minded priest Dun Gaetano Mannarino. The rebellion was crushed and most of its leaders, excluding Mannarino, were executed and their heads impaled on spikes.
Historical context: Order of Malta, The Grand Masters; History of the Order.
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