1170 - 1172
Frà Gaston / Castus / Casto / Gastus de Murols, of the langue of Auvergne, previously the treasurer, followed as Grandmaster in AD 1170-1172.
[Seal of Grandmaster Murols]
The pilgrim "Theoderich" from Würzburg* / Germany, reports in 1172 in his "Guide o the Holy Land" in part I, chapter XIII, on the Hospital of St. John the Baptist in Jerusalem:
| And here, on the south side of the Church (of the Holy Sepulchre) stands the Church and Hospital of St. John the Baptist. As for this nobody can credibly tell another, how beautiful its buildings are, how abundantly it is supplied with rooms and beds and other material for the use of poor and sick people, how rich it is in the means of refreshing the poor, and how devotedly it labours to maintain the needy, unless one has the opportunity of seeing it with one's own eyes. Indeed, we passed through this palace and were unable by any means to dicover the number of sick people lying there; but we saw that the beds numbered more than one thousand. It is not every one of the most powerful kings and despots who could maintain as many people as that house does every day. |
Quoted from: "Theoderich: Guide to the Holy Land". Translated by Aubrey Stewart. New York 21986
* Theoderich might have been a monk of Hirsau
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 Friday, 22 July 2016 19:17:47
