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Orthodox Knights Hospitaller

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The Order of St. John was founded in 1048 AD with the blessing of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem by a group of devout laymen from Amalfi, Italy – the same town that founded the Amalfion Monastery on Mount Athos. 

The Order’s initial purpose was the care of the wounds and illnesses of pilgrims to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In fact, the first institution of the Order was the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, located near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The founders took vows of dedication to the service of Christ. 

By 1098, the Brothers of the Hospital had adopted the monastic rule of Blessed Augustine and in 1113 Pope Paschal II formally recognized the Hospitallers as a religious order. Popes Innocent II and Anastasius IV also recognized the status of this religious order and extended the unique rights and privileges of the Order of St. John. Shortly thereafter, Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, recognized and confirmed the Hospitallers of St. John as an international religious organization. 

From the beginning, the Order of St. John proudly bore the title of “Guardians of the Poor of Jesus Christ”. In the 13th century the nature and scope of their service was expanded by King Richard I of England (AKA: Richard the Lion-Hearted) by recognizing the Hospitallers as a sovereign power and religious-military order. 

Similar recognition quickly followed by other monarchs of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. 

Following its formal recognition, and particularly due to its charitable service to all of Christendom, the Order quickly became so loved and respected that donations and gifts of property flowed to it in great number. 

The history of the Sovereign Order is unique and profound as it is revered for its countless works of mercy and charity; for the establishment of the world’s first and finest hospitals and for its loyal defense of the Christian faith.

In the uncertain and dangerous epoch in which they served the poor and sick, the Hospitallers were expected to be more adept with the sword than with medical science.

Thus, the Knights Hospitaller of St. John became a closely-knit elite military corps whose cavalry was feared by Crusader and Saracen alike.

The Order of St. John refused to take part in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 AD. The Order recognized this as a sacrilege and condemned the actions of renegade mercenary Crusaders as a dishonorable and barbaric act that ran completely contrary to the ideal of Christian chivalry. 

After the disastrous forth crusade, any imminent hopes of reconciling Eastern and Western Christendom were shattered. Thus, after the retreat from the Holy Land in 1291 AD, the Order relocated from Jerusalem to Cyprus and then to Rhodes in 1311 and Malta in 1530. 

Now that the Knights were islanders, they quickly became equally renowned as a naval force. This proved to be providential because in 1571, the historic Battle of Lepanto was fought and won by a combined fleet from Spain, Genoa, Venice and the Papal States - led by Galleys from the Sovereign Order of St. John under the command of Prince Don Juan of the Hapsburg dynasty. 

Not only was a huge Turkish Moslem fleet defeated by a smaller Christian fleet, but the Sovereign Order facilitated an even greater victory for Christ – the resolution of conflict among rival Christian states in the defense of Christendom.

In 1798, the avaricious French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte plundered Malta and displaced the Knights as the sovereign of the island through treachery and deceit. Loyal Knights of the Order rallied at St. Petersburg, Russia and established their new headquarters under the patronage of Emperor Paul I, who was named Protector of the Order on November 29, 1797. 

On October 27, 1798, the formal assembly of all Knights of the Order elected Emperor Paul head of the Sovereign Order of St. John. As Grand Master of the Order of St. John, Emperor Paul provided for the perpetuation of the Order by creating 21 Hereditary Commanders among the Russian nobility to guarantee its continuity. Other members later sought protection of the Papacy or certain European monarchs. 

These recognized branches still exist as the Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the English Venerable Order of St. John and the Germanic Johanniter Order, respectively.

At the time of the Bolshevik Revolution and the fall of Christian Russia into the hands of murderous Communists, the Knights of the Order had to abandon their headquarters in St. Petersburg, as they had abandoned Jerusalem, Cyprus, Rhodes and Malta in previous centuries. 

However, the Sovereign Order of St. John never died, nor was it suppressed and it has not been lost to history. In the decades since 1917, the Order has been preserved through its Hereditary Knight Commanders. In 1927, these Hereditary Commanders reunited in Paris and shortly thereafter in Manhattan and their successors remain the guardians of the Order today. 

In 1990, the Russian bishop was created in Puerto Rico and the Autonomos Grand Priory of the Americas, under the care of the Church Catholic Orthodox Caribbean, after being received by the Ancient Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East In Brazil, and its Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Basilius Adao Pereira becomes the Supreme Gran Maestre.

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