HOSPITALLERS OF ST. LAZARUS OF JERUSALEM

An order of knights and nurses following the Rule of St. augustine, the Hospitallers of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem was founded c. 1120 in Jerusalem. Its functions were to operate hospitals, especially hospitals for lepers; to spread the faith; and to assist and protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. During the first century of its existence the order operated principally in the Holy Land. Following the drastic contraction of the Latin crusader states there in the 13th century, the order transferred its activities to Europe (1253) and established houses in France, Italy, England, Scotland, Hungary, Germany, and Switzerland. During the 14th and 15th centuries the order fell into decay and in 1490 innocent viii decreed that it be united with the Order of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (see knights of malta). The French knights of the Lazarite Order, however, opposed this union vigorously, and the Lazarites lived on as an independent order in France, subject to their own grand master at Boigny, near Orléans. Bowing to this opposition, leo x restored the Lazarites as an independent order early in the 16th century. In 1572, under the Grand Master Gianetto Castiglione, a further attempt was made to suppress the Lazarites when gregory xiii ordered their union with the Order of St. Maurice and installed Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy as grand master of the united orders. Once again the French Lazarites resisted and refused to accept the union. In 1608 King henry iv united the French Lazarites with the Knights of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Both the French and Italian branches of the order were suppressed during the French Revolution, and the hospitals that they operated disappeared. The Hospitallers of St. Lazarus were revived in Italy in 1814 by Victor Emmanuel I and in France in 1830. The order survives now as a purely honorific organization.

See Also: hospitallers and hospital sisters; hospitals, history of.

Bibliography: Sources. a. de marsy, "Fragments d'un cartulaire de l'ordre de S. Lazare en Terre Sainte," Archives de l'orient latin 2 (1884) 121–157. Literature. p. bertrand, Histoire des chevaliers–hospitaliers de Saint–Lazare (Paris 1932). m. heimbucher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, 2 v. (3d ed. Paderborn 1932–34) 1:612–613. e. nasalli–rocca, "Gli ospedali italiani di S. Lazzaro o dei lebbrosi," Zeitschrift der Savigny–Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung 27 (1938) 262–298. r. janin, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ², ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:494.

[j. a. brundage]