B. THE
CHAPTER - GENERAL OF 1177
THE CUSTOMS OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOSPITAL OF JERUSALEM
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
These are the customs which should be observed in the House of the Hospital of
Jerusalem.
- The first morning Mass should not be begun before it is day, nor should the Commander of
any house order the priest to chant mass. And no priest should chant mass twice in a day,
unless by chance the body of the dead person be there, and then in this manner, first
should be chanted the mass for the day, if it be a Sunday or a day of Festival, and
afterwards should be chanted that for the dead, if a body be present there. And everywhere
where a deceased (brother) of the hospital shall be buried, the day of his death should be
written in the calendar. And for thirty days masses should be chanted for his soul. And
when the Trental shall be completed, the day the anniversary should always be celebrated
for his soul, and when the church where the Trental shall be celebrated has three priests,
one should celebrate the Trental, and the other two chant the masses for the day. And if
two priests only be there where the Trental should be celebrated, the service should be
shared between them, and the gratuity. And when there shall be there no more than one
priest, they shall obtain another a stranger to celebrate the service of the Trental.
- And when it shall be celebrated, one besant and a new shirt and breeches, according to
the custom of the House, should be given to him. And if it be impossible to find a
stranger priest. and the priest of the house be without the company of another priest, the
Trental should be celebrated in this manner, that is to say that every day he should chant
for the dead except on Sundays and days of solemn festival; and then afterwards he should
make the commemoration and remembrance for the brother that is departed. But when the
thirty days shall be passed, and after the number of days on which commemoration should be
made only for the soul of the brother shall be fulfilled by the Trental, and there should
be given to the priest the charity aforesaid. And if by chance these things should happen
in Lent in the houses where there shall be no more than one priest, let it be postponed
until after Easter, and then let celebration be made for the soul of the brother without
delay.
- And let the brethren always take care to have a light in the church, and let the chalice
for administration be of silver, and the censor of silver.
- And it is commanded that the bodies of pilgrims or of other Christians, who shall die
after the Hour of Vespers, should be left until the next day; and in the Hospital, where
they shall have died, let them not lie upon their biers without a light. And the next day
before Prime they should be carried to the church, and after Mass should be buried; the
biers of the dead should be like those that are in Jerusalem.
- The bodies of the brethren should be watched in the church, and the clerics should be
around them chanting their psalms, and the tapers should be lighted. Of the charity that
is given to the priests for the Trental the house should retain nothing; but for the
Trentals of strangers the brethren should retain the half.
- For the public and private masses the priests should have nothing for themselves, except
so much as the brethren should wish to give them of their own free will.
- Of the payments from confessions the sixth part should be given to the priests and the
clerics, not by contract but of grace; but in casales where there shall be no burgesses,
and no one except one priest, the arrangements aforesaid shall be at the discretion of the
Commander of the house, and the gratuity of the clerics he shall give as shall seem good
to him.
- Of the wills and legacies, which shall be made to vicars up to one besant, the half
should be given to them; but the legacies and wills, which shall be left to the Hospital ,
when they shall be paid over, the brethren should receive them without deduction.
Joubert of Syria - 7th
grandmaster of the Order of Malta (SMOM)
This page is part of the publication: Blessed Gérard and his "everlasting brotherhood": The Order of St. John
of Jerusalem
This page was last updated on
13.10.14 14:41:39
