The economical sustanance of the Order of St Lazarus in the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Abstract

On the 14 July 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders who founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem; a kingdom that was to remain constantly threatened by Islamic forces until the Crusaders were eventually ousted from Acre on the 14 May 1291. In Jerusalem, the Crusaders found a number of functioning establishments that had been set up in previous centuries with the aim of providing succour to pilgrims. One such establishment was the leprosarium in Hierosolymorum eremo (agro) sanctae Mariae in Monte Olivarum set up by Aelia Eudoxia in the fourth century AD.In the early decades of the 12th century, this establishment was to assume a monastic form to become the Fratres hospitalis Sancti Lazari Hierosolimitani. The assumption of a link between the 4th century and the 12th century establishments was made by Pope Pius IV.