Two+Beginnings

When did the Order of St John begin?
There are two founding dates given to a hospice in Jerusalem.

In 600AD, Pope Gregory the Great commissioned his former emissary, Abbot Probus of Ravenna to build a hospice for the care and treatment of pilgrims to Jerusalem. It appears that the Abbot chose the site where an angel announced the conception of John the Baptist as the place to build a hospice and chapel.

It appears that two notable leaders renovated and enlarged this original hospice: historian H. J. A. Sire claims that John, the Patriarch of Alexandria and later known as St John the Almsgiver, renovated the hospital before his death in 620AD. Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne got permission from Caliph Haroun al-Raschid (of Arabian Nights fame) to renovate the hospice again, and add a library in 800AD. However, in 1010AD, the hospice was one of around 3000 Christian buildings burnt down by the fanatical Caliph al-Hakim.

The second founding date was 1023AD, when merchants from the powerful trading port of Amalfi gained permission from Caliph Ali az-Zahir to rebuild a hospice at the abbey of St Mary of the Latins. By 1080, the Benedictine abbey had been given the site of the original hospice, where a church and new hospice were built. It was this hospice that tended to the injured crusaders after the Siege of Jerusalem in July, 1099.

And there are two founding dates for the Order of St John. Grateful crusading noblemen gave huge gifts of money and land, both in the new Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the crusading nations of Europe. The fame of the hospice was spread throughout the Mediterranean and the leader of the hospice, Blessed Gérard, wasted no time in taking advantage of this. From August 1099 onwards, he separated the hospice from the Benedictine rule of St Mary and created an international organisation of Hospitallers. In 1999, St John internationally recognised the nonacentenary of the Order.

However, this organisation was not officially recognised as an Order of the Roman Catholic Church until 15th February 1113, when Pope Paschal II issued the bull “//Geraudo institutori ac praeposito Hirosolimitani Xenodochii.//” This is when the Order of St John officially began.

//Blessed Gerard set up the order from August 1099; Pope Paschal II's bull of February 15, 1113.//