Spoke 12: The Biblewheel and The 12th Century - The Order of Saint-Lazarus for Lepers

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The Order of Saint-Lazarus for Lepers

The order of Saint-Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem (Lazarists) was created in Jerusalem. Leprousy was mentioned particularly in the 12th book 2Kings as Naaman the Syrian captain coming to be healed by the God of Elisha and Israel in Israel. 

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Order of Saint Lazarus

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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

Flag of the Order
Successor	Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italian branch, since 1572) Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910)
Formation	Circa 1098/1119
Dissolved	1572/1830
Type	Military order
Purpose	Nursing
Membership	Catholic
Official language	Latin
Patron Saint	Saint Lazarus
Parent organization	Catholic Church
Affiliations	House of Savoy (1572) House of Bourbon (1609–1824/1830)

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 around 1119 at a leper hospital in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose care became its original purpose, named after its patron saint, Lazarus.^[1][2][3] It was recognised by King Fulk of Jerusalem 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 Battle of La Forbie in 1244 and in the Defense of Acre in 1291.^[4] The titular seat was successively situated at Jerusalem, Saint-Jean-d'Acre and - after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem - split in two main branches in Italy and in Château Royal de Boigny-sur-Bionne in France.^[5]

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 Lazarus holdings in Germany.

In 1572, the Order of Saint Lazarus in Italy was merged with the Order of Saint Maurice under the Royal House of Savoy to form the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, which still exists until today, widely recognised as a dynastic successor of the Italian branch.^[6] This merger however excluded the 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 sited in the duchy of Savoy.

In 1608, King Henry IV of France, with the approval of the Holy See, linked the French section 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 Royal Crown during the 18th century with the serving grand masters then being members of the Royal family. It suffered the consequences of the French Revolution, and went into exile along with its grand master Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, Comte (count) de Provence, king-in-exile Louis XVIII. It formally lost its royal protection in 1830 and then ceased to remain listed as of royal protection in the French Royal Almanac.^[7][8][9]

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 fifteenth century when leprosy was no longer the scourge it had been in earlier centuries.^[10]

Contents

History[edit]

Crusades[edit]

The military order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a leper hospital founded in the twelfth century by crusaders of the Latin Kingdom. There had been earlier leper hospitals in the East, of which the Knights of St. Lazarus claimed to be the continuation, in order to have the appearance of remote antiquity and to pass as the oldest of all orders. According to Charles Moeller, "this pretension is apocryphal";^[11] but documentary evidence does confirm that the edifice was a functioning concern in 1073.^[12]

The Order of St. Lazarus was purely an order of hospitallers in the beginning, and adopted the hospital Rule of St. Augustine in use in the West. It has been claimed that the Order assumed a military role in the 12th century, but this not supported by verifiable evidence.^[4] The Lazarists wore a green cross upon their mantle.^[13][14]

Hospitals dependent on the Jerusalem leprosarium were eventually established in other towns in the Holy Land, notably in Acre, and in various countries in Europe particularly in Southern Italy (Capua), Hungary, Switzerland, France (Boigny), and England (Burton Lazars).^[15] Louis VII of France, on his return from the Second Crusade, gave it the Château of Broigny, near Orléans in 1154. This example was followed by Henry II of England, and by Emperor Frederick II.^[11]

In 1154, King Louis VII of France gave the Order of Saint Lazarus a property at Boigny near Orléans which was to become the headquarters of the order outside of the Holy Land. Later, after the fall of Acre in 1291 the Knights of St. Lazarus left the Holy Land and moved first to Cyprus, then Sicily and finally back to Boigny, which had been raised to a barony in 1288.

The Order remained primarily a hospitaller order. They did take part in a number of battles, but there is no evidence for this prior to the fall of Jerusalem (1244). After the fall of Jerusalem in July 1244 and the subsequent Battle of La Forbie the following October, the Order of St. Lazarus, although still called "of Jerusalem", transferred to Acre, where it had been ceded territory by the Templars in 1240. The Ordinis Fratrum & Militum Hospitalis Leprosorum S. Lazari Hierosolymitani under Augustinian Rule was confirmed by Papal Bull Cum a Nobis Petitur of Pope Alexander IV in April 1255. In 1262 Pope Urban IV assured it the same immunities as were granted to the monastic orders.

Late medieval period[edit]

The order quickly abandoned its military activities after the fall of Acre in 1291.^[15] As a result of that catastrophe, the leper hospital of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem disappeared, but its commanderies in Europe, together with their revenues, continued. In 1308, King Philip IV of France gave the order his temporal protection.^{[citation needed]}

In 1490, Pope Innocent VIII attempted to amalgamate the order with the Knights of St. John, including the handing-over to the Knights of the possessions of the Order. Although that was confirmed in 1505 by Pope Julius II, the Order of Saint Lazarus resisted the move, and the order of St. John never came into possession of the property, except in Germany. In France, the bull of suppression was ignored and French Grand Masters appointed.^{[citation needed]} The order of Saint John pursued its claim to the French holdings but that was legally rejected by the Parliament of Paris in 1547.

In 1565, Pope Pius IV annulled the bulls of his predecessors and restored all possessions to the order so that he might give the grand magistry to a favorite, Giovanni de Castiglione. However, de Castiglione did not succeed in securing the devolution of the commanderies in France. By the end of the 16th century, the Order retained a significant presence only in France and Italy.

Continuations after 1572[edit]

Royal House of Savoy[edit]

Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (1528–1580), founder and first Grand Master of the amalgamated Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, recognised in 1572 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Main article: Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

With the death of the papal favorite, Castiglione, in 1572, the grand magistry of the order was rendered vacant and Pope Gregory XIII united the Italian branch with the Order of Saint Maurice to set up the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. This order was then linked in perpetuity with the Crown of Savoy and thenceforth the title of its Grand Master was hereditary in that house.

By the time of Pope Clement VIII the order had two houses, one at Turin, was to contribute to combats on land, while the other, at Nice, had to provide galleys to fight the Turks at sea. But when thus reduced to the states of the Duke of Savoy, the order merely vegetated until the French Revolution, which suppressed it. In 1816 the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel I, re-established the titles of Knight and Commander of Sts. Maurice and Lazarus, as simple decorations, accessible without conditions of birth to both civilians and military men.^[11]

This became a national order of chivalry on the unification of Italy in 1861, but has been suppressed by law since the foundation of the Republic in 1946. Since 1951 the order has not been recognized officially by the Italian state. However, the House of Savoy in exile continued to bestow the order. Today, it is granted to persons eminent in the public service, science, art, letters, trade, and charitable works.

Royal House of France[edit]

Louis XVIII (1755–1824) with the Order of Saint Lazarus grand cross

Main article: Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united

Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen (1745–1826) with the Order of Saint Lazarus knight cross

Russian General Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800) with the Order of Saint Lazarus knight cross

In 1604, Henry IV of France re-declared the French branch of the order a protectorate of the French Crown. King Henry IV founded in 1608, with the approbation of Pope Paul V, the Order of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel. He then, in turn, united to this new order the possessions of St. Lazarus in France, and such is the origin of the title Ordres Royaux, Militaires & Hospitaliers de Saint Lazare de Jérusalem & de Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel réunis ("Royal, Military, and Hospitaller Orders of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Lazarus of Jerusalem united"). This amalgamation eventually received formal canonical acceptance on 5 June 1668 by a bull issued by Cardinal Legate de Vendôme under Papal authority of Clement IX.

Unlike the situation with the Savoyian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus where a complete merger took place creating one order, the French branch was not completely merged with the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the orders were managed as two separate entities, with individuals being admitted to one order but not necessarily to both.^[16]

During the French Revolution, a decree of 30 July 1791 suppressed all royal and knightly orders in France. Another decree the following year confiscated all the Order's properties. The Holy See, which had originally created the Order, on the other hand did not suppress the order;^{[citation needed]} while Louis, Count of Provence, then Grand Master of the order, who later became Louis XVIII, continued to function in exile and continued admitting various dignitaries to the order.^[17]

Scholars differ in their views regarding the extent to which the Order remained active during and after the French Revolution. There is however no doubt of its continuing existence during this time. In different museums, there are preserved a number of paintings of Russian and Baltic nobles, admitted to the order after 1791. In this list are general John Lamb, Prince Suvorov, count Pahlen, count Sievers etc. Some of the new knights are listed in Almanach Royal from 1814 to 1830. King Louis XVIII, the order's protector, and the duc de Châtre, the order's lieutenant-general, both died in 1824. In 1830, a royal decree caused the order to lose its royal protection in France.

See also[edit]

• Christianity portal
• War portal

• Grand Masters of the Order of Saint Lazarus
• List of Delegations and Commanderies in North America

Successors[edit]

• Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
• Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united

In popular culture[edit]

• The Order of Saint Lazarus is depicted in season two of the television series Knightfall.
• A fictionalized version of the Order is depicted in the television series A Discovery of Witches.

References[edit]

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. ^ Jump up to:^a b Wise (2012)
5. ^ "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.
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Moeller, Charles. "The Military Orders." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 22 Jun. 2015
8. ^ "The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Cyclopedia of names". Century Company. 1906. p. 761.
9. ^ "Almanach Royal pour l'anné 1770-1830".
10. ^ Takeda, Junko Thérese (2011). Between Crown and Commerce - Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean. Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 118.
11. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Moeller, Charles. "Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 22 Jun. 2015
12. ^ Savona-Ventura, Charles (October 2018). "A Hospitalis infirmorium Sancti Lazari de Jerusalem before the First Crusade". Acta Historiae Sancti Lazari Ordinis. 2: 13–26.
13. ^ Porter, Whitworth (1871). Malta and Its Knights. Pardon and Son. p. 14.
14. ^ Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume CXV. The Leonard Scott Publishing Company. 1874. p. 494. There were four of each : the Hospitallers, the Templars, the Teutonic Knights, and the Lazarists in Palestine ; and the brotherhoods of Calatrava, Santiago, Alcantara, and Avis in the Peninsula. All these fraternities were established in order to help the weak and fight the Saracen; yet, nothwithstanding this general similarity of object, each of them had a special character of its own which distinguished it from the others.
15. ^ Jump up to:^a b Marcombe, D. (2003). Leper Knights: The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, 1150-1544. Woodridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-067-1.
16. ^ Grouvel, Robert. L'Ordre de Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel et l'École Royale Militaire (1779-1787). Carney de La Sabretache, 1967, p.352-356.
17. ^ Sainty, Guy Stair, ed. (2006) World Orders of Knighthood and Merit, p. 1862

Bibliography[edit]

• Bander van Duren, Peter (1995). Orders of Knighthood and of Merit-The Pontifical, Religious and Secularised Catholic-founded Orders and their relationship to the Apostolic See. XLV-XLVII. Buckinghamshire.
• Burgtorf, Jochen (2006). Alan V. Murray (ed.). "Siege of Acre, 1291". The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. I. OCLC 70122512.
• Coutant de Saisseval, Guy (nd). Les Chevaliers de Saint Lazare de 1789 à 1930. Drukkerij Weimar by the Hague.
• Environ (1295), Constitution, règlements et nécrologie de Seedorf (Suisse).
• Marcombe, David (2003). Leper Knights. Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-067-1.
• Morris of Balgonie Ygr., Stuart H. (1986). The Insignia and Decorations of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Perthshire.
• Sainty (ed.), Guy Stair (2006). World Orders of Knighthood and Merit.
• Savona-Ventura, Charles (2014). The History of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. New York: Nova Publishers.
• Wise, Terence (2012). Knights of Christ. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781780966427.

Further reading[edit]

• Belloy, Pierre de (1622) [1604]. De l'origine et institution des divers ordres de chevalerie tant ecclésiastiques que prophanes (2nd edition Toulouse ed.). Paris.
• Elphinstone, Francis (November 1962). "The Opponents of St Lazarus which appeared". The Armorial. Edinburgh. III (4).
• de Sibert, Gautier (1772). History of The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Paris.
• Military History Online - Order of St.Lazarus in the Latin East
• Seward, Desmond (1995). The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders. London: Penguin Group.
• Bander van Buren, Peter (1995). "The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem from the book: Orders of Knighthood and Merit: The Pontifical, Religious and Secularised Catholic-founded Orders and their relationship to the Apostolic See". Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2007-05-18.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Order of Saint Lazarus.

• Wikisource: "Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem". Catholic Encyclopaedia (1913)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_Lazarus

Comparing 2Kings the 12th Book and Numbers 12  with the 12th Century

2Kings 5 - Listen 1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, [but he was] a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord [were] with the prophet that [is] in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. 4 And [one] went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that [is] of the land of Israel. 5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand [pieces] of gold, and ten changes of raiment. 6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have [therewith] sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, [Am] I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. 8 And it was [so], when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. 9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12 [Are] not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, [if] the prophet had bid thee [do some] great thing, wouldest thou not have done [it]? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that [there is] no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. 16 But he said, [As] the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take [it]; but he refused. 17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. 18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, [that] when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing. 19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. 20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, [as] the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. 21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw [him] running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, [Is] all well? 22 And he said, All [is] well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. 23 And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid [them] upon two of his servants; and they bare [them] before him. 24 And when he came to the tower, he took [them] from their hand, and bestowed [them] in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. 25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence [comest thou], Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. 26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart [with thee], when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? [Is it] a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? 27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper [as white] as snow.

Numbers 12 - Listen 1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard [it]. 3 (Now the man Moses [was] very meek, above all the men which [were] upon the face of the earth.) 4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. 5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood [in] the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. 6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, [I] the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, [and] will speak unto him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses [is] not so, who [is] faithful in all mine house. 8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. 10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam [became] leprous, [white] as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, [she was] leprous. 11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb. 13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in [again]. 15 And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in [again]. 16 And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.