Saint John in Jerusalem, Church of the Order of

Biography

The Order of Saint John in Jerusalem, also called the Knights of Malta or the Knights Hospitaller, was a religious and chivalric order. It began in the eleventh century in Jerusalem as a hospice and infirmary for pilgrims, that together with a church, was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The need to defend pilgrims and the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem from Moslem attacks forced the order to become militaristic as well. As it quickly increased in prestige and popularity the order was able to acquire numerous possessions throughout the Near East and Europe. In the late fourteenth century the mystic Rulman Merwsin established a monastery at Grünen Wörth, apparently an island-like piece of land just outside the gate of Strasbourg which was accepted in 1371 by the Order of Saint John in Jerusalem and where, ten years later, a hospital was built by a lay-brother. During the Thirty Years' War the order at Strasbourg lost its buildings and in 1633 the church in Grünen Wörth was pulled down, and its contents apparently put in storage. In 1687, after long negotiations, the order moved into the cloister of Saint Marx in Strasbourg where it remained until the French Revolution.

Bibliography

1967

Sherbowitz-Wetzor, O. P. and C. Toumanoff. "Knights of Malta," New Catholic Encyclopedia 16 vols. (1967) 8: 217-220.

1970

Wienand, Adam. Der Johanniterorder. Der Malteser-Orden. Der ritterliche Orden des hl. Johannes vom Spital zu Jerusalem. Cologne, 1970: esp. 386-388 for Strasbourg.

1972

Gerd, Walter Rödel. Das Grosspriorat Deutschland des Johanniter-Ordens im Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Reformation. Cologne, 1972: esp. 181-193 for Strasbourg.

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