| Its Origins
The Order of St. John was founded before the taking of Jerusalem in 1099 by the armies of the First Crusade. It began as a monastic community, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, which administered a hospice-infirmary for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Originally connected with the Benedictines, it became, under Bl. Gerard (Vol. Ed. 95 1120), an independent organization. By the Bull of 15 February 1113, addressed to Bl. Gerard, Pope Paschal II approved the confraternity of the Hospital of St. John, placed it under the protection of the Holy See, and ensured its right of freely electing its heads, as well as Gerard's successors, without any interference from any other ecclesiastical or any lay authority. In virtue of this Bull and of subsequent Papal acts, the Hospital became an exempt Order of the Church.
 Owing to the political situation after the setting up by the Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Order, now under its second head (and the first to be styled Master), Fra' Raymond du Puy, was obliged to assume military functions for the protection of the sick, the pilgrims, and the Christian territory which the Crusaders had won back from the Muslims. Accordingly, the Order of the Hospital of St. John acquired the additional character of an Order of Knighthood. The Knights were thus also Religious, bound by the three monastic vows of Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty. It thus became a persona mixta, a religious-military Order.
Church of St. John the Baptist at the Hospital of Saint John in Jerusalem. Fra' Raymond du Puy introduced the first rule of the Order known to us and also the white octagonal cross which has to this day remained the Order's emblem (the Maltese Cross).
Manosque Medallion 1216 Maltese Cross 1566 While continuing on a vast scale its hospitaller activity, one of its two aims: obsequium pauperum (service of the poor), the Order pursued valiantly its other aim, the defense of Christendom: tuitio fidei (protection of the Faith). Map with principal Hospitalier castles c.1140 However, in 1291, Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land was lost and the Order settled temporarily in Cyprus.
 Castle and sugar refiery at Colossi, Cyprus, (c.16th century) | |