The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Militaris et Hospitalis Sancti Lazari Hierosolymitani) is a Christian order that was statuted in 1910 by a council of Catholics in Paris, France, initially under the protection of Patriarch Cyril VIII Geha of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.de Jandriac. Les chevaliers Hospitaliers de Saint Lazare de Jerusalem et de Notre Dame de la Merci. Rivista Araldica, November 1913, XI(11):p.679–683 The Order was officially recognised by the Spanish state in 1940 (Boletin oficial del Estado num. 131 de fecha 10 de mayo de 1940, pp. 3177–3178). During the 1920s, it expanded its jurisdiction and enrolled members from other countries in Europe and in the Americas. It re-established the office of grand master in 1935, linking the office to members of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon. It assumed an ecumenical dimension during the 1950s to expand its membership to individuals of other Trinitarian Christian denominations in British Commonwealth countries.
Owing to an internal schism in 1969, the order became divided into two competing "obediences", known as the Malta Obedience and the Paris Obedience. In 2008, these rival obediences were reconciled and reunited into a single order once again, led at that time by Carlos Gereda y de Borbón as grand master, and with the spiritual protection of the (now former) Patriarch Gregory III Laham of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. However, during the period of separation, the Paris Obedience had experienced further schisms, with the creation in 1995 of the United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus (led at that time by John Baron von Hoff), and in 2004 of the Orléans Obedience (led at that time by Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans under the protection of Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris). The latter group then experienced a schism in 2010, resulting in the creation of the Jerusalem Obedience (led by Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma).
Claims to regularity The modern Order of Saint Lazarus claims to maintain the spirit and history of the medieval Order of Saint Lazarus and claims a historical continuity to the French branch of the medieval order through the 17th to 19th century Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united under the fons honorum of the Holy See until the publication of the Papal Bull De Equestribus Pontificus by Pope Pius X in 1905 which defined the future pontifical orders without formally abolishing any of the other previously extant orders. The promulgation of the 1905 bull led the Council of the Order of Saint Lazarus to re-organize itself and become secularized under the protection of the Melkite Patriarchy formally statuting these changes in 1910.de Jandriac. Les chevaliers Hospitaliers de Saint Lazare de Jerusalem et de Notre Dame de la Merci. Rivista Araldica, November 1913, XI(11): pp. 679–683. The basis of the current Order of St Lazarus's origin, and the authority for its statuting in 1910, has attracted controversy.
In 1608/1609, the French branch of the medieval Order of St Lazarus was canonically linked with the newly pontifically created Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, forming the Royal Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem united under the patronage of the reigning French king. This administrative inter-relationship between these two orders, both under the fons honorum of the Holy See, was canonically recognised in 1668 by a bull issued by the Holy See legate for France, Cardinal Louis de Vendôme, and eventually by Pope Innocent XII in 1695. The united orders continued to enjoy royal favour until the turmoil of the French Revolution (1789–1799) put an end to formal admission ceremonies to the Order of Saint Lazarus, though King Louis XVIII, previously grand master of the order, admitted a number of knights while in exile. With the Bourbon Restoration, King Louis XVIII and his successor King Charles X both served as protectors of the order which continued to function under the management of a council of officers.
In 1831, the order lost its royal protection but was not abolished, since being originally a papal-established order only the pope could exclusively abolish the order by a specific contrarius actus. This has never been forthcoming and hence the regulations relating to the order fall under the precepts of canon law which allows for an order to become extinct 100 years after the deaths of its last member. The last living member admitted before the French Revolution died in 1856. Hence, according to canon law, the order would have only become extinct in 1956. It has been argued that this itself was sufficient to allow the existence of the order right through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.C. Savona-Ventura and M.W. Ross: The Heraldry and Development of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Published in Double tressure: The Journal of the Heraldry Society of Scotland, Summer 2013, 36:+28p.
Contemporary documentation confirms that the order was active philanthropically in the mid-nineteenth century in Haifa;Adolphe Dumas. Temple et Hospice du Mont-Carmel en Palestine. Fain & Thunot, Paris, 1844, pp. 11–12. while definite admissions were made in the late nineteenth century apparently by Pope Pius IX who used the award to reward his Zouaves supporters.
The historical events following the loss of French Royal patronage in 1830 can only be left to traditional history and conjecture. It is claimed that in the 1840s, the Council of Officers of the order sought patronage from the Melkite patriarchy. Tradition holds that this reorganization came in 1841 under the aegis of Francophile Melkite Patriarch Maximos III. The evidence for this, albeit quite plausible, is circumstantial due to the destruction of pertinent records during the 1860 Druze/Marionite Mount Lebanon conflagration and further ruination of Patriarchal papers at Al-Ain in the 1983 civil war. Nevertheless, a reorganization indisputably occurred under Patriarch Cyril VIII who became the order's protector for a while in 1911 as did later patriarchs—all safely before the canonical extinction year of 1957. The debate about the historicity of the 1841 Melkite protection is moot, as the Declaration of Kevelaer in 2012 issued by Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, the previous Melkite patriarch granting authority, confirms, by affidavit, the 1841 advent of the Melkite protection.Kevelaer Declaration at:the Declaration of Kevelaer in 2012 issued by Patriarch Gregorios III Laham
The 1910 reorganization is stated by the order to have been within the framework of the Roman Canonical continuation of the order (Canon 120 §1 and §2) which was never abolished by the Vatican. Consequently, St. Lazarus continued as a creature of canon law for 100 years after the death of the last knight admitted during the ancien regime, the Marquis des Gouttes, who passed in 1857 assuring the order's continuation until 1957, arguably buying time to find a protector and to reorganize.Nelson, H. W. & Ross, M. (2015). Exploring Legitimacy: The Controversial Case of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus. Journal of Alternative Perspectives 6, (4), 352–375. It is relevant that no pope has ever ordered a Melkite patriarch to desist in this protection of the Order of St. Lazarus (which popes had previously done for other orders) and Peter van Duren emphasized that "only a papal interdict against the order of St. Lazarus or the Patriarch could have prevented him [any Patriarch] from agreeing to become the spiritual Protector of the Order".Van Duren, Peter Bander. (1995). Orders of knighthood and of merit: the pontifical, religious and secularized Catholic-founded orders and their relationship to the Apostolic See. Gerrards Cross : Colin Smythe publishers A grand magistracy was re-established in 1935 with the appointment of Francisco de Borbón y de la Torre.
Notably, no matter if the modern establishment is to be attributed to 1841 under the patriarch, to 1910 under the council of officers, or to 1935 under the re-erected grand magistracy of Francisco de Borbón y de la Torre – whether considered laicized or not – the enact would arguably not strictly be contrary to canon law.
Present legal status
The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem has since its reunification striven to change its structure to suit the modern world organizing itself into a formal legal foundation to better function within the framework requirements demanded of associations and non-governmental organizations by the modern world. Since 2005, the order has operated as a registered company in the United Kingdom defined as an unincorporated or voluntary association constituted under the constitution adopted in 2006.Certificate of Incorporation of a Private Limited Company – Company No. 5387048 including 2006 Company appointments. Cardiff: Companies House, 9.iii.2005, +18pp.(+6pp.) |url=http://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05387048/filing-history In 2014, steps were undertaken to set up a private foundation to serve as a non-profit organization regulated by Spanish legal provisions. The International Hospitaller Foundation of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem serves to coordinate worldwide initiatives involving assistance, healthcare, attending the sick and needy, and promoting humanism and Christian values carried out by organizations of different nationalities under the banner of St Lazarus. To further ensure a legally-sound internationally functioning organization, the order has encouraged its various jurisdictions to ensure their legal status within the country they function and enter into a memorandum of association with the International Hospitaller Foundation.
International Commission on Order of Chivalry The modern order is recognized by many ecclesial, royal, noble, princely and reigning and non reigning royal dignitaries. Nevertheless, private, self-appointed, non-governmental bodies such as the Académie Internationale d'Héraldique, International Academy of Genealogy, a private organization created in 1998 founded by self proclaimed heraldist Jean-Marie Thiébaud, and the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry maintain incorrectly, without evidence and without head of state authority, that the modern Order of Saint Lazarus is only a revived self-styled order. A self-styled order or pseudo-chivalric order by definition is an organisation which claims to be a chivalric order, but is not recognised as legitimate by countries and heads of state. This footnote anonymous reference is based on opinions based on the incomplete history of the Order by Paul Bertrand written in 1932.
The International Commission on Orders of Chivalry (ICOC), a private organization with no state authority, formed to charge fees for approving orders of chivalry, does not include the MHOLJ on its Provisional List of Orders (2010) arguing that:
It is relevant to note that in 1964–1999, ICOC was embroiled in several controversies caused by the different cultural training of its commissioners. The root of some of these controversies stems from the unavoidable bias inherent in the ICOC's governing structure as a private, non-governmental organization. The Commission despite its name, as a private body lacks any legal jurisdiction to unilaterally declare anything other than what amounts to a private opinion.