THE VENERABLE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 2

THE VENERABLE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

(By W. B. Fisher, Member of the Venerable Order of St. John.) The humanitarian aims and work of the organisation of St. John in New Zealand, which includes an instructional system of first-aid to the injured, home nursing, aiid transport of the sick and injured, auxiliary Red Cross operations, and district nursing, have been brought by Mr W. B. Fisher, lion, secretary of the Dominion Executive of St. John, under the notice of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, who is a Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, in acknowledgment, Mr P. K. Hodgson, private secretary, writes, inter alia, as follow:—“I am to convey to yourself and other members an expression of las Royal Highness’ best wishes for the success of the splendid work in which you are engaged.”—Evening Post, February 25, 1927. Down the centuries the illustrious Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem stood out pre-eminent in that great and nearly tideless sea expanse dividing Europe from Africa and known among the ancients as the mare internum. The laudable operations for the defence of Christendom by its members has gained the admiration of the civilised world, while the heroic deeds performed on land and sea will bo a subject for eulogium as long as civilisation lasts. Beginning as a Confraternity in Jerusalem circo 1049 the Brothers of St. John banded together as ambulanciers and Hospitallers for tiie relief of pilgrims who were subjected to perils incidental to travelling in Palestine. Acting under a powerful impulse of devotion their services were given gratuitously and in a spirit of self-abnegation. Naturally their ministrations earned the unceasing gratitude of travellers, who when visiting the Holy Sepulchre with pious intent or exploring the hills of Quarantania had been ruthlessly molested by hordes of savage Bedouins. With the passage of time the numerical strength of the hospital staff, which included probationary and military retainers, was periodically augmented by men deeply imbued with the teachings of Christianity. Inspired by the examples of Godfrey do Bouillion of Lorraine, the leader of the first Crusade, and Richard Ooour do Lion, King of England, in the third expedition the Hospitallers united with the Crusaders in their military campaign and helped to drive the infidels from the Holy City in the year 1099. Some ten years after the Moslem expulsion, a cousin of Godfrey Hie Crusader was elected as Baldwin H., King of Jerusalem, and he granted the Hospitallers a charter in recognition of their religious, military and humanistic qualifications. Subsequently the Sovereign Pontiff Pascale 11. sanctioned a constitution, under which they became an Order of Knighthood with tiie white cross on red ground for their Standard and a black mantle on which was insigned the eight pointed cross over a panoply of militant scarlet (when serving in arms) as a distinctive uniform. The points of this cross symbolised the eight beatitudes spoken by the Divine Founder of the Christian faith, which are as follows:—(1) Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est rogmim coelorum. (2) Beati Mites, quoniam ipsi possidebunt terrain. (3) Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur. (4) Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiani, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. (5) Beati misericordes, quomain misericordiam consequentur. (G) Beati muifdo corde, quoniam ipsi Doum videbnnt, (7) Beati pacific!, quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur. (8) Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam, quoniam ipsorum est regiium coelorum. The English translation of the foregoing verses appear in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter v, 3-10. Under the government of a Grand Master, the Knights, Esquires, and Serving Brothers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem became the guardians of the Mediterranean for GBO years, where they engaged in a number of sanguinary conflicts with the Turks. One of these stupendous combats caused great distress of mind among the Rulers of Europe, and the English Queen Elizabeth (who was an Anglo-Catholic, in contra-distinction to the Roman Catholic members of St. John) ordered prayers to be offered in the English churches for the success of the Christians. Although 3GO years have passed since the last siege by the Turks was successfully withstood by their gallant opponents, a requiem for those who dropped below the horizon is annually sung at Malta,- reminding the present generation that it is in memory of the Brotherhood of St. John. The status of the Grand Master of the Order was equivalent to a European sovereign, and his envoys were accredited to»the monarchical governments of civilised nations. With the inception of a more regular system of mercantile marine and the restricted operations of the Turks in the eighteenth century, an era of inactivity ensued, which practically reduced the defenders of Jerusalem (for 77 years), Acre (104 years), Syprus (19 years), Rhodes (212 years), and Malta (2()8 years) to an almost hopeless condition of coma. Discipline became inoperative, the Knights, Esquires, and Serving Brothers lost their vim, and the Directorate of the French Republic confiscated all the landed property belonging to the Order in France. Added to this calamity, Napoleon decided to annex Malta, and owing to internal dissension incomputable with the union expressed in the sentence “Cor unum ot aniina uiia” the Grand Master was induced to capitulate' without resistance, and so the famous international Older of St. John suspended at Malta its activities as a sovereign power. The next and following chapters will he oil the work of St. John in England and overseas.