Order of Saint Lazarus

This article is about the medieval Catholic military order. For its successor, see Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. For other uses, see Order of Saint Lazarus (disambiguation). For the society of apostolic life also known as Lazarists, see Congregation of the Mission.
Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem
SuccessorOrder of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italian branch, since 1572)
Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united (French branch, 1608–1830)
EstablishedCirca 1130
Dissolved1572: merger of Italian branch
1608: merger of French branch
TypeMilitary order
PurposeNursing
Membership
Catholic
Official language
Latin
Saint Lazarus
Parent organization
Catholic Church
AffiliationsHouse of Savoy (since 1572)
House of Bourbon (1608–1830)

The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem or simply as Lazarists, was a Catholic military order founded by Crusaders during the 1130s at a leper hospital in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose care became its original purpose, named after its patron saint, Lazarus.[1][2][3]

The monastic order itself is believed to have been created in the during the 1130s as a hospitaller order,[4] and the earliest reference to the order's military activity is dated to 1234.[5] It was recognised by King Fulk in 1142, and canonically recognised as a hospitaller and military order of chivalry under the rule of Saint Augustine in the Papal bull Cum a Nobis Petitur of Pope Alexander IV in 1255. Although they were centred on their charism of caring for those afflicted with leprosy, the knights of the Order of Saint Lazarus notably fought in the Siege of Acre in 1191, Arsuf, in the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, the Battle of La Forbie in 1244, and in the Defense of Acre in 1291.[6] The titular seat was successively situated at Jerusalem, then Acre. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the order split into two main branches – in Italy and in France (at the Château Royal de Boigny-sur-Bionne).[7]

In 1489, Pope Innocent VIII attempted to merge the order and its land holdings with the Knights Hospitaller. This was resisted by the larger part of the jurisdictions of the Order of Saint Lazarus, including those in France, Southern Italy, Hungary, Switzerland and England. The Knights Hospitaller only managed to appropriate the order's holdings in what is now Germany.

In 1572, the Order of Saint Lazarus in Italy was merged with the Order of Saint Maurice under the House of Savoy to form the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, which still exists today and is recognised as a dynastic successor of the Italian branch.[8] However, the merger excluded the order's holding in the southern part of Italy, then forming part of the Spanish realm. These were transformed into ecclesiastical benefices. The Duke of Savoy only managed to gain control of those benefices situated in the Duchy of Savoy.

In 1608, King Henry IV of France, with the approval of the Holy See, the jurisdiction of the head of the Catholic Church, linked the French branch administratively to the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to form the Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united. This branch became closely linked to the French Crown during the 18th century, with the serving grand masters then being members of the French royal family. It suffered the consequences of the French Revolution and went into exile along with its grand master, Louis-Stanislas-Xavier de Bourbon, Count of Provence (the future King Louis XVIII). It formally lost its royal protection in 1830 and then ceased to remain listed as having royal protection in the French Royal Almanac.[9][10][11]

The word lazarette (in some languages being synonymous with leprosarum) is believed to also be derived from the hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus, these edifices being adopted into quarantine stations in the 15th century, when leprosy was no longer the scourge it had been in earlier centuries.[12]

  1. ^ Savona-Ventura, Charles (October 2008). "The Order of St Lazarus in the Kingdom of Jerusalem". Journal of the Monastic Military Orders. 1: 55–64.
  2. ^ Bellesheim, Alphons (1887). History of the Catholic Church of Scotland: From the Introduction of Christianity to the Present Day. Blackwood. Lazarists. David likewise established at Harehope the military order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, which had another house at Linlithgow.
  3. ^ Wise (2012): "The new Order had its own church and convent by 1142, and by 1147 was known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem. By 1155 the Order had houses in Tiberias and Ascalon, and later in Acre and possibly Caesarea and Beirut. By the mid-12th century the Order had also developed a force of military brethren, but they were never very numerous, and the Order remained principally preoccupied with the hospitaller role. A few non-leper brethren were included in the Order as knights, and leprous knights almost certainly took up arms when necessary. There were also lay brethren-sergeants, recruited from commoners suffering from leprosy."
  4. ^ Marcombe 2003, p. 7.
  5. ^ Marcombe 2003, pp. 12–13.
  6. ^ Wise (2012)
  7. ^ "Constitution of The Order". The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. 2015. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  8. ^ The Living Age, Volume 121. Littell and Gay Publishers. 1874. This ideas was not realized; but in 1572 the Lazarists were joined to the Order of St. Maurice of Savoy, and the two together constitute the present Italian Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare.
  9. ^ Moeller, Charles. "The Military Orders." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 22 Jun. 2015
  10. ^ "The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Cyclopedia of names". Century Company. 1906. p. 761.
  11. ^ "Almanach Royal pour l'anné 1770-1830".
  12. ^ Takeda, Junko Thérese (2011). Between Crown and Commerce - Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean. Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 118.