The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is a religious/military order dating back to the First Crusade.

Its primary object was the tending of the sick, especially those with leprosy, of whom Lazarus was regarded as the patron saint. From the 13th century, the order made its way into various countries of Europe - Sicily, Lower Italy and Germany (Thuringia); but its chief centre of activity was France, where Louis IX (1253) gave the members the lands of Boigny near Orleans and a building at the gates of Paris, which they turnec into a lazar-house for the use of the lepers of the city. A papal confirmation was obtained from Alexander IV in 1255. The knights were one hundred in number, and possessed the right of marrying and receiving pensions charged on ecclesiastica benefices. An eight-pointed cross was the insignia of both the French and Italian orders. The gradual disappearance of leprosy combined with other causes to secularize the order more and more.

In Savoy in 1572 it was merged by Gregory XIII at the instance of Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy in the Order of St Maurice . The chief task of this branch was the defence of the Catholic faith, especially against the Protestantism of Geneva. It continues to exist in the 21st century as an order of merit. In 1608 the order in France was united by Henry IV with the order of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel . It was treated with special favor by Louis XIV, and the most brilliant period of its existence was from 1673 to ??, under the marquis de ?ouvois. From that time it began to decay. It was abolished at the French Revolution, reintroduced during the Restoration, and formally abolished by a state decree of 1830.

In the 20th century, an organization claiming to be a revival of the order took up activities to promote Christian charity and medical assistance in Eastern Europe.

References

See L. Mainbourg, Hist, des croisades (1682; Eng. trans. by Malson, 1686); P. Helyot, Hist, des ordres monastiques (1714), pp. 257i 386; J. G. Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebesthdtigkeit im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1884); articles in Herzog-Hauck 's Realencyklopadie fiir protestantische Theologie, xi. (1902) and Wetzer and Welte's (Catholic) Kirchenlexikon, vii. (1891).

External link

• Order of St Lazarus homepage