ORDER OF ST

See also:

• LAZARUS (a contracted form of the Heb. name Eleazar, " God has helped," Gr. Aiq-apos)
• LAZARUS, EMMA (1849–1887)
• LAZARUS, HENRY (1815–1895)
• LAZARUS, MORITZ (1824–1903)
• ORDER OF ST LAZARUS

LAZARUS  , a religious and military order founded in Jerusalem about the middle of the 12th century . Its primary object was the tending of the sick, especially lepers, of whom Lazarus (see LAZAR) was regarded as the patron . From the 13th century, the order made its way into various countries of Europe—Sicily, Lower Italy and Germany (Thuringia); but its chief centre of activity was France, where Louis IX . (1253) gave the members the lands of Boigny near Orleans and a building at the gates of Paris, which they turned into a lazar-house for the use of the lepers of the city . A papal confirmation was obtained from Alexander IV. in 1255 . The knights were one hundred in number, and possessed the right of marrying and receiving pensions charged on ecclesiastical benefices . An eight-pointed cross was the insignia of both the French and Italian orders . The gradual disappearance of leprosy combined with other causes to secularize the order more and more . In Savoy in 1572 it was merged by Gregory XIII . (at the instance of Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy) in the order of St Maurice (see KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY: Orders of Knighthood, Italy) . The chief task of this branch was the defence of the Catholic faith, especially against the Protestantism of Geneva . It continued to exist till the second half of the 19th century .

In 16o8 it was in France

united by Henry IV. with the order of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel . It was treated with especial favour by Louis XIV., and the most brilliant period of its existence was from 1673 to 1691, under the marquis de Louvois . From that time it began to decay . It was abolished at the Revolution, reintroduced during the Restoration, and formally abolished by a state decree of 1830 . See L . Mainbourg, Hist. des croisades (1682; Eng. trans. by Nalson, 1686) ; P . Helyot, Hist. des ordres monastiques (1714), pp . 257, 386; J . G . Uhlhorn, Die christliche Liebesthatigkeit im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1884) ; articles in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie, xi . (1902) and Wetzer and Welte's (Catholic) Kirchenlexikon, vii . (1891) .