The Military Order of St Lazarus

The Order of St Lazarus is one of the earliest of the Christian orders of chivalry still in existence, and is considered to have been established in the Holy Land by crusader knights somewhere between 1098 and 1130. The hospital of St Lazarus in Jerusalem is known to have comprised a distinctive religious community of monastic brothers and knights, many of whom had left other Orders because they had contracted leprosy or been otherwise disabled through warfare. In caring for one another while supporting the crusades, their activities were both military and hospitaller. Health issues remain one of the Order's charitable aims today, though its focus has now widened to encompass many other forms of humanitarian aid. The Grand Priory of Great Britain has supported a number of charitable projects including: Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice and the building of a Hospital in Burkina Faso.

The Order takes its name from the biblical Lazarus. There are two mentioned in the New Testament, the first being the brother of Martha and Mary, a friend whom Jesus raised from the dead (John 11:1-44). This miracle is recounted principally as a sign that Jesus really is the power of life evident in his own resurrection. It is also a fulfilment of his prophecy in John 5:28-29 that 'the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice'. Then there is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), which also treats themes of illness, death and resurrection. The beggar named Lazarus was 'full of sores' and so presumably suffering from leprosy, the disease then being endemic. The two stories were probably both taken into account when the dedication of St Lazarus was chosen for the original Jerusalem hospital. In succeeding centuries, Lazarus became the patron saint of lepers and the word 'lazaretto' came to denote a leprosarium. The feast of St Lazarus is generally observed on 17 December in Western Christianity and the Saturday before Easter in Orthodoxy.