Knights Hospitallers

views updated May 21 2018

Knights Hospitallers (Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem) Military Christian order recognized in 1113 by Pope Paschal II. In the early 11th century, a hospital was established in Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims. They adopted a military role in the 12th century to defend Jerusalem. After the fall of Jerusalem (1187), they moved to Acre, then Cyprus, then Rhodes (1310), from where they were expelled by the Ottoman Turks (1522). The Pope then gave them Malta, where they remained until driven out by Napoleon in 1798. The order still exists as an international, humanitarian charity.

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