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Order of Saint LazarusThis article concerns the suppressed catholic hospitaller and military order. For other uses of the name Lazarus, see Lazarus (disambiguation). The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem originated in a leper hospital, run by hospitaller brothers, founded in the twelfth century. It was originally established to treat virulent diseases such as leprosy. It later became a military/hospitaller order. Today, a modern self-styled revival of the Order is engaged in a major charitable program to revive Christianity in Eastern Europe. Millions of dollars in food, clothing, medical equipment and supplies have been distributed in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Croatia. Because of this experience, the European Community commissioned the Order to transport more than 1.5 billion dollars in food to the hungry in Russia, resulting in new laurels for the Lazarus volunteers. Additional recommended knowledge
HistoryEven prior to the twelfth century there were leper hospitals in the Near 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. This pretension is apocryphal. These eastern leper hospitals followed the Rule of Saint Basil, while that of Jerusalem adopted the hospital Rule of St. Augustine in use in the West.[1] The Order of Saint Lazarus was indeed solely an order of hospitaller monks at the beginning, as was that of St. John, but without encroaching on the field of the latter. Because of its special aim, it had quite a different organisation. The patients of St. John were merely visitors, and changed constantly; the lepers of St. Lazarus on the contrary were condemned to perpetual seclusion. In return they were regarded as brothers or sisters of the house which sheltered them, and they obeyed the common rule which united them with their religious guardians. In some leper hospitals of the Middle Ages even the master had to be chosen from among the lepers. It is not proven, though it has been asserted, that this was the case at Jerusalem. From the time of the crusades, followed by the spread of leprosy, leper hospitals became very numerous throughout Europe, so that at the death of St. Louis there were eight hundred in France alone. However, these houses did not form a congregation; each house was autonomous, and supported to a great extent by the lepers themselves, who were obliged when entering to bring with them their belongings, and who at their death willed their goods to the institution if they had no children. Many of these houses bore the name of St. Lazarus, from which, however, no dependence whatever on St. Lazarus of Jerusalem is to be inferred. The most famous, St. Lazarus of Paris, depended solely and directly on the bishop of that city, and was a mere priory when it was given by the archbishop to the missionaries of St Vincent de Paul, who have retained the name of Lazarus (1632). The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem is believed to have become a military order circa 1123. It is known that a contingent of Lazar brethren were present at La Forbie, and in 1253 they were part of the army under St Louis. In 1291, 25 brethren were present during the siege of Acre, all being killed. It is believed the Order ceased military activities in the early 14th century. It was endowed not only by the sovereigns of the Latin realm, but by all the states of Europe. Louis VII, on his return from the Second Crusade, gave it the Château of Boigny, near Orléans (1154). This example was followed by Henry II of England, and by Emperor Frederick II. This was the era when military commanderies whose contributions, called responsions, flowed into Jerusalem, swollen by the collections which the hospital was authorized to make in Europe. The popes for their part were not sparing of their favours. Alexander IV recognized its existence under the Rule of St. Augustine (1255). Urban IV assured it the same immunities as were granted to the monastic orders (1262). Clement IV obliged the secular clergy to confine all lepers whatsoever, men or women, clerics or laymen, religious or secular, in the houses of this order (1265). At the time these favours were granted, Jerusalem had fallen again into the hands of the Muslims. St. Lazarus, although still called "of Jerusalem", had been transferred to Acre, where it had been ceded territory by the Templars (1240), and where it received the confirmation of its privileges by Urban IV (1264). It was at this time also that the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, following the example of the Order of St. John, armed combatants for the defence of the remaining possessions of the Christians in the near east. Their presence is mentioned without further detail at the Battle of La Forbie against the Khwarezmians in 1244, and at the final siege of Acre in 1291. As a result of this catastrophe the leper hospital of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem disappeared; however its commanderies in Europe, together with their revenues, continued to exist, but hospitality was no longer practised. The order ceased to be an order of hospitallers and became purely military. The knights who resided in these commanderies had no tasks. Things remained in this condition until the pontificate of Innocent VIII, who suppressed this order and transferred its possessions to the Knights of St. John (1490), which transfer was renewed by Pope Julius II (1505). But the Order of St. John never came into possession of this property except in Germany. The Papal Bull to this effect could not be enforced owing to the sovereign tradition of these orders. This action resulted, however, in splitting the Order into two major branches, that under the rule of the preceptory at Boigny and the other under the authority of the priory at Capua. [2] In France, Francis I, to whom the Concordat of Leo X (1519) had resigned the nomination to the greater number of ecclesiastical benefices, evaded the Bull of suppression by conferring the commanderies of St. Lazarus on Knights of the Order of St. John. The last named vainly claimed the possession of these goods. Their claim was rejected by the Parliament of Paris (1547).[3] Leo X himself disregarded the value of this Bull by re-establishing Order of St. Lazarus, (1517)[4] Pius IV went further; he annulled the Bulls of his predecessors and restored its possessions to the order that he might give the mastership to a favourite, Giovanni de Castiglione (1565). But the latter did not succeed in securing the devolution of the commanderies in France. Pius V codified the statutes and privileges of the order, but reserved to himself the right to confirm the appointment of the Grand Master as well as of the beneficiaries (1567). He made an attempt to restore to the order its hospitaller character, by incorporating with it all the leper hospitals and other houses founded under the patronage of St Lazarus of the Lepers. But this tardy reform was rendered useless by the subsequent gradual decline of leprosy in Europe. Finally, the grand mastership of the order having been rendered vacant in 1572 by the death of Castiglione, Pope Gregory XIII united it in perpetuity with the Crown of Savoy. The reigning duke, Philibert III, hastened to fuse it with the recently founded Savoyan Order of St. Maurice, and thenceforth the title of Grand Master of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus was hereditary in that house. The pope gave him authority over the vacant commanderies everywhere, except in the states of the King of Spain, which included the greater part of Italy. In England and Germany these commanderies had been suppressed by Protestantism. France remained, but it was refractory to the claims of the Duke of Savoy. Some years later King Henry IV, having founded with the approbation of Paul V (1609) the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, hastened in turn to unite to it the Knights of St. Lazarus obedient to French mastership, and such is the origin of the title of "Knight of the Royal Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Knight of the Military and Hospitaller Order St. Lazarus of Jerusalem", which carried with it the enjoyment of a benefice. The King of France was the sovereign head of the Royal Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and protector the Military and Hospitaller Order St. Lazarus of Jerusalem and chose the Grand Master (Concordat 1519). During the reign of Louis XVI the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, not the combined orders, was awarded only to the top three students of the Royal Military School. The orders were separate though they shared the same Grand Master. Although the Order enjoyed a unique relationship with the French Royal House and was officially under the protection of the King of France, it was never a Royal Order. The King's titles as Sovereign, Founder and Protector meant that he was Sovereign and Founder of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Protector of Saint Lazarus. During the French Revolution. a decree of 30 July 1791 suppressed all royal and knightly orders. Another decree the following year confiscated all the Order's properties (the Château de Boigny, the Military Academy, the commanderies and hospitals). Louis, count of Provence, Grand Master of the Order, who later became Louis XVIII, continued to function in exile and awarded the Order, though sparingly. While in exile in the Polish province of Mitawa, where the Grand Master was living in 1800, he awarded the Order to Tsars Paul I and Alexander I of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, count Rostopchine, General de Fersen and General Paul Osten Dreisen. When the Count of Provence returned to France from exile to reign as Louis XVIII, he gave up the magistracy of the Order and became Protector, as had his predecessors, but appointed no grand master. The Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour issued a statement in 1824 to the effect that “..of the united Orders of Saint Lazarus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the latter has not been awarded since 1788 and is allowed to extinguish itself”. In 1831 the government of Louis-Philippe, suppressed the United Orders of Saint Lazarus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel among others. Returning to the dukes of Savoy: Pope Clement VIII granted them the right to exact from ecclesiastical benefices pensions to the sum of four hundred crowns for the benefit of knights of the order, dispensing them from celibacy on condition that they should observe the statutes of the order and consecrate their arms to the defence of the Faith. Besides their commanderies the order had two houses where the knights might live in common, one of which, 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 Saints Maurice and Lazarus, as a house order, accessible without conditions of birth to both civilians and military men. Self-styled revivalMembers of the modern Order of St Lazarus claim that in 1841, the historic Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem requested the protection of the Greek Melchite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Maximos III Mazlûm, and petitioned he become their Spiritual Protector; he reportedly accepted, both for himself and his successors. There is no reliable documentation of this event. In 1910, the Greek Melchite patriarch of Jerusalem had just been forced to resign as Grand Master of the Supreme Militia of Jesus Christ. This organization had started in 1870 as a group of former soldiers in the Papal army, discharged after the capture of Rome by Italy. In the mid-1880s, the association tried to turn itself into an order of chivalry; rebuked by the Dominicans to which they were initially connected, they turned in 1900 to the Greek Melchite patriarch of Jerusalem. A stern warning from the Pope quickly convinced the patriarch to resign the Grand-Mastership (to use the terms of Bertrand). Then, according to the official historians of the revived order, in 1910, the Patriarch asked "the almoner of the Order of Saint Lazarus", a Polish chaplain named Tansky, living in Paris since 1870, to revive the order; the chaplain being also a member of the Militia of Jesus-Christ, got in touch with a fellow member of that Supreme Militia, a Frenchman by the name of Paul Watrin, who is made "Chancellor" of the Order. Watrin is also a key public figure in the revival. [1] The self-styled order's activities were suspended in 1914, perhaps due to World War I. Possibly, because Moser and an accomplice named Hans Branco were both arrested in Paris for trafficking in false orders and decorations. Moser had apparently gone too far and started selling fake Legion of Honor medals. He was sentenced to 4 months in jail, after which he returned to Berlin, and committed suicide in 1928. The offices of the Société were searched by the police and many counterfeit diplomas, crosses and various insignia were found. This may have put a damper on the Order of Saint Lazarus. Eight years later, Fritz Hahn alias Guigues de Champvaus was jailed in 1936 in Paris for illegal sale of order and decorations. [2] In June 1933, the Duke of Seville, who had fled Republican Spain, was hosted at a dinner at the Hotel Iena in Paris. To replace the publication La Science Historique, a new periodical appeared in April 1933 under the editorship of Paul Bertrand, La Vie Chevaleresque, as the official mouthpiece of the order. The new periodical chronicles the fabulous expansion of the order. In December 1935, the Duke of Seville was elected Grand-Master of the order. Presumably, the duke's royal connections (a member of the extended Spanish royal family) impressed Spanish-speaking applicants, and the order became linked with a number of Latin American diplomats in Paris. Otzenberger was made consul of the Dominican Republic in Mulhouse. The order's ideological slant was quite visibly inherited from Watrin's original legitimism: the Duke of Seville himself was a colonel in Franco's armed forces. The distribution of crosses confirms the political inclination: between 1933 and 1936, the following individuals become members: Francisco Franco (dictator of Spain 1936-75), Carol II of Romania (king/dictator of Romania 1930-40), Rafael Trujillo (dictator of the Dominican Republic 1930-52), Fulgencio Batista (dictator of Cuba 1933-44, 1952-59), Getulio Vargas (dictator of Brazil 1930-45), and a few other presidents of Latin American countries (Argentina, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala). Whether all of these distinguished gentlemen were actually aware of their membership is not quite clear: the order occasionally bestowed its cross on unsuspecting individuals, as happened to the Mexican Marquis de Guadalupe, whose protestations were obviously ignored. [3] Recent yearsDon Francisco de Borbon y Escasany, 5th Duke of Seville and Grandee of Spain, is present Grand Master and His Beatitude Melkite-Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and all the East, is Spiritual Protector of the revived Order of St Lazarus. In recent years the expansion of the organisation and its humanitarian activities have taken a new direction. Aid to the handicapped, the sick and to the aged has been added to the Order's pursuit of its traditional mission in the field of leprosy. The primary purpose and activity of the organisation is, and always has been, charity. Primarily, St. Lazarus has been world renown as a charity in that its works have always been associated with medical care, primarily through the operation of medical facilities such as hospitals and clinics. For a number of years, the organisation was at the forefront of charitable and humanitarian projects supported by Pope John Paul II, and they were specifically singled out by him for their praiseworthy activities. As the Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II, joined by members of the College of Cardinals, had on more than one occasion invited a group of people collectively as members of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem to his private apartments in the Vatican, and celebrated Holy Mass with them in his private chapel, and encouraged them to undertake charitable projects in which he took personal interest personally. (However, the Vatican has not recognized the Lazarites as a legitimate order of chivalry.) Schisms and protectionsToday, the revived Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is divided into three main branches due to internecine squabbles. There is the branch that enjoys the spiritual protection by the east-catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem H.B. Gregory III Laham, also the 172nd Patriarch of Antioch since Saint Peter. There is the branch that has aligned itself with the French House of Bourbon Crown of France in the person of Henri, Comte de Paris, Duc de France, Head of the Royal House of France, enjoys the Spiritual Protection by H.E. László Cardinal Paskai OFM, Primate of Hungary[5]. Finally there is a branch headquartered in the United Kingdom called the United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem - that has no royal allegiance and is run by a Master General. Connections to freemasonryAndrew Michael Ramsay, also known as Chevalier Ramsay, was a prominent Scottish freemason who converted to Catholicism in 1710. The Archbishop of Cambrai, who converted him to Catholicism, secured him as the tutor of the Duc de Chateau-Thierry and the Prince de Turenne. He was made a knight of the Order of Saint Lazarus, thus receiving the title Chevalier. He also tutored the two sons of the Pretender, James, III. In 1737 as chancellor of the Paris Grand Masonic Lodge, he delivered his celebrated oration in which he falsely attributed the origin of Freemasonry to the Knights Templar rather than to the Guild of Masons. This may have been inspired by his membership in the Lazarus order. He addressed this theory to the Pope, for which he suffered censure from the church. He is also credited with the development of several Masonic degrees and rites, before his death on May 6, 1743. [4] The Dukes of Brissac, [5] and the Dukes of Seville, [6] have also figured prominently among the leaders of freemasonry. Protectors/Grand masters/Administrators of the historic orderProtectors in Near East - Apocryphal
Protectors in Jerusalem - Melkite Patriarchs of Jerusalem (VII c. - 1054) - Apocryphal
Master Generals in the Holy Land - Jerusalem
Master Generals in the Holy Land - Acre
Master-Generals in Boigny, France
Master-Generals in Capua, Italy
Grand Masters in Boigny - under protection of French Crown
Interregnum
Protectors/Grand masters/Administrators of the self-styled order(s)French and Spanish obediences - under the protection and administration of Melkite-Greek Catholic Patriarchs
French obedience
Malta obedience - under the temporal protection of Duke of Seville
Paris obedience
Malta and Paris obediences - Spanish Allegiance branch - under the temporal protection of Duke of Seville
Malta and Boigny obediences - French Allegiance branch - under the temporal protection of H.R.H. Henry, count of Paris, duke de France, Henri VII as the Orleanist to the throne of France
The United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem
The Constitutional Grand Priory of England & Wales
under protection of Rt Hon. & M.Rev. Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. List of other self-styled "Orders of Saint Lazarus"
Bibliography
Notes
Websites belonging to various jurisdictions
Different and alternative views on St. Lazarus Order history
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Order_of_Saint_Lazarus". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |