INTRODUCTION : The legacy of the Order of St. John

The annals of church history contain numerous religious orders of knighthood – significant and ephemeral, early foundations and modern institutions, communities still active today and those whose glory lives on only in archives. Of all these institutions, none bears more impressive witness to its history than the oldest religious order of knighthood in Christendom: the Order of St. John.

Its official title is "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta." Over the centuries, various shortened names such as Hospitallers, Knights of Rhodes, Knights Hospitaller, or Knights of Malta arose. Until the Reformation, these names were used synonymously for the entire community. Today, the Catholic branch of the order usually refers to itself as the Order of Malta, while the Protestant branch, re-established in 1852, bears the name Order of St. John. In Great Britain, the "Most Venerable Order of St. John," established under the Crown in 1831, also continues the tradition.

The story unfolding here, however, is rooted in a time more than six centuries before the Reformation.

The Order of St. John played a key role in the history of religious orders as well as in world politics. Originating from the "Brotherhood of the Hospital of Jerusalem," it developed into a religious order and, from 1135, into a military order. As a subject of international law, it maintained its sovereignty² after losing its territories. To this day, it continues to operate true to its motto "tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum" (protection of the faith and service to the poor),³ as a religious community and as an international relief organisation.

To understand the nature and activities of this order, knowledge of its intellectual and historical development, as well as the spiritual circumstances of its founding, is essential. This book is dedicated to this exploration. The historical investigation focuses on the first period of the Order of St. John: from its beginnings to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187.

The following outlines the historical facts that gave rise to the foundation, shaped the circumstances of its development, and established the far-reaching consequences for Christianity.

Blessed Gérard tending to the sick⁴