The Knights Hospitaller, or Hospitallers, of Saint…

The Knights Hospitaller, or Hospitallers, of Saint John of Jerusalem, is formally named and recognized in a papal bull issued by Pope Paschal II on February 15, 1113, as an order of canons regular.

Italian merchants from Amalfi had in the last century founded a hospital in Jerusalem to care for sick and poor pilgrims.

After the Christian conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the hospital's superior, a monk named Gerard de Martignes, had intensified his work in Jerusalem and has founded hostels in Provençal and Italian cities on the route to the Holy Land.

Following the loss of the Holy Land by Christian forces, the Order will operate from Rhodes, over which it will be sovereign, and later from Malta where it will administer a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily.

When Napoleon captures Malta in 1798, the Knights will cease to be associated with any one place, but will give rise to Christian successor successor organizations in existence until the present day.