ST. JOHN'S DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 19

ST. JOHN'S DAY

PARADE ON SUNDAY

HISTORY OF THE ORDER

Friday will be St. John's Day. To celebrate it a church parade will be held at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Wellington, next Sunday. The parade will comprise members of the order, St. John Ambulance Association, St. John Ambulance Brigade, and of the District Nursing Guild of St. John. With rare interruptions, a hospital has existed in Jerusalem since the third century. In 550 A.D. the Emperor Justinian built at Jerusalem that hospital of St. John which became the cradle of the war-like knights of Rhodes and Malta, whose original function was to tend the sick pilgrims, and afterwards to nurse back to health the wounded crusaders. In 1056 a few merchants of Amain, a small town near Naples, purchased the site of the Latin hospital established by Charlemagne, and obtained permission from the Sultan to found a hospital within the walls of Jerusalem for the relief of the poor pilgrims of all nations wno visited Jerusalem.. This hospital was subsequently dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Forty-three years later Godfrey ,de Bouillon became the first Latin King of Jerusalem. He granted the hospital a constitution and confirmed Gerard, one of the most prominent members of the old guild, as first master of the institution. It was then no fighting community. To relieve the hungry, the weary, the homeless, and the sick, of their own faith, who had gone to Palestine, was its special vocation. But the kindly offices of the good monks were not limited by the boundaries of creed. The Arab or Turk was also welcome whenever necessity brought him to their doors. Under Gerard's rule the hospital of St. John remained essentially the same, more prosperous but not more martial It would seem that the ambition that agitated the members at the time was that of enhancing the legitimate merits of their position, By becoming still more charitable in their charity, still more humble in their humility, and still more self-denying in their religious discipline, for in 1120 the Serjiens oi Servientes of the hospital formed them selves for such purposes into a sepa rate monastic body.

KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE. About the same time a small band ; of knightSj calling themselves the J Brotherhood of the Temple, began to , distinguish themselves by their zeal "and courage. They devoted themselves ] to the defence of the high roads lead- , ing- to Jerusalem, where pilgrims were , continually harassed and injured by . robbers. Such services spoke eloquent- ■ ly to overyone. Golden opinions were ■ speedily, won. From poor knights they ; soon became rich knights. The little body began speedily to grow into a ! church, and the fame of the "Knight-, hood of the Temple of Solomon" began to spread through Europe. Amid the general excitement of the wars this junction of priest and soldier seemed a happy embodiment of the prevailing passion, duties, and wants of the age. Hugh de Paynes set out on a tour • with four of the brethren to promulgate the objects of the society. They arrived in England in 1128, and were received with the deepest respect by Henry 1 and his Court. The result was that when thfcy returned to Jerusalem they took with them a company of three hundred of the best and bravest of European knights. Gerard died in 1118 and his mortal remains accompanied the order he had founded in all its wanderings from Jerusalem to Malta. In 1118' Raymond du Puy wias appointed master and this bold warner was quick to see in the fraternity of the hospital the means of establishing a new order of knighthood which would combine in its members the three callings of soldier, priest, and physician. Under his rule the peaceful brothers of St. John took up the lance, and rushed forth into the field in rivalry of the Brotherhood of the Temple. SOLDIER FRIARS. The new order of soldier friars met with the approval of Pope Paschal 11, and in a few years the institution became so popular that many of the sovereigns of Europe granted it large gifts of money and land. , „. „. 9 Many distinguished nobles . placed their services at the disposal of du, Puy, and gradually a,new order combining the piety of the priest, the devotion of the physician, and the enthusiasm of the soldier came into existence, which .through eight centuries of storms and stress, has played an important part in the theatre of the world's:history. ~ _ ~ . Soon after their revival the English hospitallers determined to establish an English hospital and ophthalmic dispensary at Jerusalem to supply a long-felt and acknowledged want ana at the same time to obtain the desired pied a '.terre in the city in which the order; originated. After lengthy negotiations the British Ophthalmic Hospital of St.. John was founded in 1882 on a site near the Jaffa Gate. This hospital has done magnificent work in a country where eye disease is especially common. The hospital passed from-the control of the order during the war and suffered much during the Turkish occupation, as part of it was used as a magazine. Now that the Holy Land has been liberated once and for all from Moslem rule, this foundation of the order has a great future before it.