Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
The founding of the religious community of the Hospitallers of St. John in the Holy Land dates back to the second half of the 11th century. Some merchants from the maritime republic of Amalfi obtained an authorization from the Caliph of Egypt to build in Jerusalem a church, convent and hospital named after St. John Baptist to assist pilgrims.
It was under the leadership of Blessed Fra’ Gerard, founder and first Master, that the religious community became a lay religious order. Thanks to the bull of 15 February 1113, Pope Paschal II recognised the Order of St. John, placing it under the protection of the Church and granting it the right to freely elect its superiors, without interference from other lay or religious authorities.
Blessed Fra’ Gerard’s successor as Master was Blessed Fra’ Raymond du Puy who between 1145 and 1153 wrote the first rule for the Order’s members. All the confreres were religious, bound by the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and dedicated to assisting the poor and the sick.
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem obliged the Order to assume the military defence of the sick and pilgrims and to protect its medical centres and main roads. Defence of the faith was then added to the hospitaller mission and the Order adopted the eight-pointed cross, still today its symbol.
After the fall of St. John of Acre and the loss of the Holy Land in 1291, the Order of St. John moved its seat and hospital to Limassol on the island of Cyprus, where it had already been present since 1210 thanks to the concession of important properties, privileges and trading rights. Here, faithful to its mission, it continued to build new hospitals and the strategic position of the island encouraged it to create a naval fleet to protect pilgrims en route to the Holy Land.
Members continued to arrive from all over Europe and the Order acquired more possessions on the shores of the Mediterranean, including the important port of Famagusta, the city of Nicosia and numerous Commanderies.
The growing instability of Cyprus restricted the Hospitallers’ expansion, and they looked towards the island of Rhodes as more suitable for the Order of St. John to settle.
Under the leadership of Grand Master Fra’ Foulques de Villaret, in 1307 the knights of the Order of St. John landed on Rhodes. After completing the acquisition of the island in 1310 they transferred their seat there. At that time the defence of Christendom required a naval force and the Order navigated the eastern Mediterranean with its powerful fleet, fighting many famous battles.
The Order’s independence from other nations thanks to papal deeds, with the universally recognized right to maintain and deploy armed forces and to appoint ambassadors, constituted the grounds for its international sovereignty.
Since the beginning of the 14th century, the knights belonging to the European nobility who arrived in Rhodes were grouped according to their language. Initially there were seven Langues (Tongues): Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon (Navarra), England (with Scotland and Ireland) and Germany, with the addition in 1462 of the eighth Langue of Castille and Portugal. Each Langue had its own Priory or Grand Priory, Bailiwick and Commandery.
The Order was governed by the Grand Master (Prince of Rhodes) and by the Council, it minted its own money and maintained diplomatic relations with other nations. The Order’s great offices were given to representatives of the various Langues. Religious members of various nationalities occupied the Order’s seat, the Convent.
In 1523, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Soliman the Magnificent, the knights were forced to surrender and left Rhodes with military honours.
For some years the Order remained without a territory, until in 1530 Grand Master Fra’ Philippe de Villiers de l’Isle Adam took possession of the island of Malta, granted to the Order by Emperor Charles V with the approval of Pope Clement VII. It was established that the Order would remain neutral in any war between Christian nations.
In 1565, the knights led by Grand Master Fra’ Jean de la Vallette heroically defended the island from the Ottomans during the Great Siege of Malta. The victory curbed the expansionist aims of the Ottomans on the continent and was celebrated throughout Europe.
The following year the fortified city and port of Valletta was built, named after its founder the Grand Master. The knights transformed Malta with major urban construction projects, building palaces and churches, as well as formidable defence bastions and gardens. Architecture and artistic patronage flourished. A large new hospital was built on the island, considered one of the most organized in the world, and a school of anatomy was created, followed by a faculty of medicine. The Order also played an important role in the development of ophthalmology and pharmacology.
Besides these activities, for centuries the Order of Malta’s fleet was deployed in the most important manoeuvres in the Mediterranean Sea against the Ottoman fleet and the North African pirates.
Source: https://www.orderofmalta.int/history/
Grand Master of the Hospitallers Order:
Blessed Gerard Tum (1099-1118/20)
Raymond du Puy (1120-1160)
Auger de Balben (1160-1162)
Arnaud de Comps (1162-1163)
Gilbert of Assailly (1163-1169)
Gastone de Murols (1170-1172)
Jobert of Syria (1172-1177)
Roger de Moulins (1177-1187)
Armengol de Aspa (1187-1190)
Garnier de Nablus (1190-1192)
Geoffroy de Donjon (1193-1202)
Afonso de Portugal (1202-1206)
Geoffroy le Rat (1206-1207)
Guérin de Montaigu (1207-1228)
Bertrand de Thessy (1228-1231)
Guérin Lebrun (1231-1236)
Bertrand de Comps (1236-1240)
Pierre de Vieille-Brioude (1240-1242)
Guillaume de Chateauneuf (1242-1258)
Hugues de Revel (1258-1277)
Nicolas Lorgne (1277-1285)
Jean de Villiers (1285-1294)
Odon de Pins (1294-1296)
Guillaume de Villaret (1296-1305)