Eminence (style)

When the Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the head of state of their sovereign territorial state comprising the island of Malta until 1797, who had already been made a Reichsfürst (i.e., prince of the Holy Roman Empire) in 1607, became (in terms of honorary order of precedence, not in the actual church hierarchy of ordained ministers) the most senior official after the most junior member of the cardinals in 1630, he was also awarded the hybrid style His Most Eminent Highness (abbreviation HMEH) to recognize his status as a type of Prince of the Church.

[1] The Prince and Grand Master of the contemporary Sovereign Military Order of Malta is still styled His Most Eminent Highness.

While the term is shunned by many individuals of other faiths or denominations of Christianity, the title is officially maintained in international diplomacy without regard for its doctrinal, philosophical and theological origins.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the Metropolitan Bishop of Thessaloniki (when they are inside their territorial jurisdictions) are styled "His All-Holiness".

For example, an Ayatollah or Marja' in Shia, Imam of the Sunni Barelwi school of thought, Grand Master of the Murjite Order,[4] Moulana Syed Madani Mia, is often addressed with this title, along with individuals such as Moulana Khushtar Siddiqi of Mauritius, although these titles are, in essence, unofficial.