ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The very venerable order of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem), or simply Order of St. John, is a British order founded in 1888 and still today granted in the Commonwealth nations.

The cavalry order counts about confreres, employees and volunteers, largely of Protestant or Anglican faith even if adherents to Christianity are admitted in general.

History

After the conquest of the island of Malta by Emperor Napoleon, who put an end to a continuity of intent and resources that counted almost eight hundred years of history, the knights found themselves divided into several parallel orders. The multitude of these (over 400 knights, with dignitaries members of the Magistral Council), remained under the name of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem, repaired in Russia at the court of the Tsars; the Sovereign Military Order of St John of Jerusalem (SMOM) said of Rhodes, said of Malta was refounded only in 1803 (after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens (1802). Today it has its headquarters in Rome and is a Catholic religious order, while the Venerable Hospital Order of St. John, linked to the Anglican Church (and therefore to the British ruler), has its headquarters in London. This order also retains its hospital function and possesses clinics, field hospitals and medical training schools throughout the world.

Refoundation
In June 1826, the council of the priory in France, the consesso of the Hospitaller Knights of Malta in France, reunited in Britain and Felipe de Castellane, a French knight, was commissioned by the new council to recruit personnel who could join the constitution of an army on the model of that crusade, with a roof of expenses of 240000 pounds.

This first army offered medical support and participated in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. In this war, volunteers from all over Europe, especially from Italy, England and France (among the famous fallen of that war, there was also the English poet Giorgio, VI Baron Byron). Following those early successes, Chevalier Philippe de Castellane decided that the time had come to give life to a more developed organization, founding a company that was responsible for assistance to the sick and the wounded, in continuity with the spiritual model of the Order of Hospitaller Knights who for centuries had operated in Terrasanta and the Near East.

Reverend Sir Robert Peat, perpetual curator of the parish of St. Lawrence of Brentford in Middlesex, and one of the chaplains of Prince Regent George of England (future King George IV) was invited to join the organization as chaplain of the order. Given his position, Peat became the first effective "Gran priore" of the order of St. John, but died in April 1837 and Sir