THE OLD CRUSADES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 20

THE OLD CRUSADES

GLOBIES TO BE BEVIVED THIS YEAB. ■ ■

One hundred of the Knights ,and Ladies of the Ordjr of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem will this year set out on a pilgrimage which will revive some of the glories.of the old crusades. It is intended to visit some of the ancient strongholds at' Jerusalem, Cyprus,.Bhodes, and Malta, founded by the Order, and still so full of associations of the heroic knights who fought for so many centuries to fescue the birthplace of the Christian faith from the Saracens. The steamer Asia (says the "Daily Chronicle") has been specially chartered for the trip^ and left Venice on 7th March for its journey across the Mediterranean under the flag of the Order. Amongst those who are making the pilgrimage are:— Countess of Cromer, Dowager Countess of Airlie, Countess Haig, Lady Nunburnholme, Lady Margaret Macßae, Earl of Scarborough (sub-prior. English order), Viscount Galway, Lord Lamington, Lord Treowen, Major-Gen-eral Sir T. Yarr, Major-General Sir P. Wilkinson,. Sir Herbert Ames, Colonel Cameron (secretary, English Order), and Mrs. Cameron. It is probable that investitures will be held at some of the 1 places visited, when local members of the Order will be formally invested with the appropriate ceremonial. ■ For this purposo the members are taking with them the mantles and insignia of the Order, whilst the standard, the silver processional cross which has been in use for nearly 500 years, and the Sword of State are being taken out. The standard of the Order is the rectangular white cross on a red ground, which appears in the national flag of Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland, and, with its colours reversed, is the familiar emblem of the Bed Cross Society. It is an interesting fact that an old Admiralty order of 1700 directs all ships df the Navy to salute the flag of the Order and, as this has never been repealed, presumably they will do so during the present cruise. The Order of St. John is the oldest, and, indeed, the sole survivor of the many orders of knighthood formed in connection with the Crusades. It dates from 1048, when certain merchants of Amalfi, near Naples, established a hospital for pilgrims at Jerusalem, whose first rector was Brother Gerard. This later became an Order of Military Monks.