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The Order of St. John began with a hospice in Jerusalem, for sick and weary pilgrims visiting the holy places of Palestine. The hospice was there when the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099 and developed rapidly under the leadership of Gerard, the first master of the Hospital. In 1113, Pope Paschal II gave it an independent status as a religious Order, known as the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. When the last of the Crusader states fell to the Saracens in 1291, the Hospitallers withdrew to Cyprus until they captured Rhodes in 1309. For over two hundred years, the Knights of Rhodes were one of the main defenders of Christendom against the growing power of the Ottoman Empire. In 1453, the Turks took Constantinople and ended the Byzantine Empire. They failed to take Rhodes in 1480 but succeeded in 1522. The Knights surrendered after a long siege and on 1st January 1523, were allowed to leave with their galleys, property and honour intact. Seven years later, they were given the island of Malta by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. In Rhodes and Malta, the Order was primarily a naval power but always maintained its hospital, which was one of the most advanced of its kind. The Turks continued their advance into Europe and the Mediterranean, and in 1565 made a determined attempt to take Malta. The Great Siege lasted four months but Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent's large invasion force failed to defeat the Knights and the Maltese people. They were led by Grand Master Jean de Valette, founder of Valletta, today Malta's capital city. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the threat of the Turkish Empire subsided. Without an enemy to face, the Knights' military role also gradually declined. When Napoleon attacked Malta on his way to Egypt in 1798, they could offer little resistance. The Knights, for a time dispersed and disunited, finally established their headquarters in Rome in 1834. Now known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, this Order of the Roman Catholic Church continues its humanitarian work today. Earlier in its history, after the Reformation, the Lutheran rump of the German branch of the Order, grouped itself around the Prussian Bailiwick of Brandenburg and formed the Johanniterorden. Today, it includes the Swiss, Hungarian, Finnish and French Associations of Knights. The Dutch and Swedish branches of the Johanniter became independent under their crowns. The Johanniter and Swedish and Dutch Orders of St. John are linked with the Most Venerable Order by a Convention of Alliance concluded in 1961. |
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A Brief History of the Order |
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To contact us: |
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Phone: 07624 483058 Fax: 01624 617981 Email: moorep@manx.net
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Douglas Ambulance Cadet Division. |
