Two+Saints

Which St John is the patron saint of the Order?

St John the Baptist is officially recognised as the patron saint of the Order because the original hospice was built on the site where an angel supposedly announced his conception (Luke 1: 11-17) and the chapel built there was dedicated to him.

Soon after its construction however, it was renovated and enlarged by the Patriarch of Alexandria. The locals therefore referred to the hostel of St John as belonging to him, St John the Almsgiver. Monks associated with the other hostels that the Patriarch constructed followed an Augustinian monastic tradition and St John the Almsgiver’s own maxim: “//Domini nostril morbi//” – ‘The sick are our masters.’

Raymond du Puy’s first Rule of the Order (c.1130) echoed the Almsgiver’s words when writing “It is indecent that the servant wears furs and velvet when his masters, the poor of Christ, go naked.”

But medieval Europeans knew St John the Baptist because he featured strongly in the Bible. They didn't know about any saint from Alexandria in Egypt. So when the Order wanted to make itself known in Europe, they stuck to the St John everyone knew.

It hasn’t helped that the Order in its early years always referred to itself as the Order of the Hospital of //**St John of** **Jerusalem**//. Indeed, the contemporary historian, Archbishop William of Tyre (c.1130 – 1186) believed and wrote that the patron saint of the Order was St John the Almsgiver, and confusion has reigned ever since.

//St John the Baptist; St John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Jerusalem. You'll find more information about these two below: //