Today it is granted to persons eminent in the public service, science, art, letters, trade, and charitable works. The House of Savoy in exile continued to bestow the order. Since 1951 it has not been recognised officially by the Italian state. With the Italian unification (1860-1871), the order became a de facto Italian state award for civilian and military merit, consisting of five classes: Knight Grand Cross, Knight Grand Officer, Knight Commander, Knight Officer and Knight.Īfter Italy became a republic in 1946 the order was effectively replaced by the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. When leprosy again broke out the order founded, in 1773, a hospital in Aosta. The war galleys of the order fought against the Turks and the Barbary pirates. The new order was charged to defend the Holy See as well as continue to assist lepers. In 1572 Pope Gregory XIII merged the Italian foundation of the Order of Saint Lazarus with the Order of St Maurice. French knights were reluctant to accept the Savoy grand mastership with effect in their country and the French kings maintained protectorate over Order of Saint Lazarus. The order declined, but in 1572 was reestablished by Pope Pius V at the instigation on the then Duke of Savoy.īefore its transfer to the House of Savoy, the Order of Saint Lazarus maintained a number of leper hospitals, prominent among these an institution in the Italian city of Capua. The Order of St Maurice was founded in 1434 by Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, who became Antipope Felix V. With papal support, Duke of Savoy became Grand Master in 1572. In the sixteenth century, the order declined in credibility and wealth. With the fall of Acre in 1291 the knights of St Lazarus fled the Holy Land and Egypt and settled in France and, in 1311, in Naples. It became very rich, its practices dubious, and its funds much abused. From its inception, the order was concerned with the relief of leprosy, and many of its members were lepers who had been knights in other orders. Presuming a foundation date of 1099 for the Order of the Hospital (now the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Order of Saint John), the Order of Saint Lazarus may be the oldest surviving of the medieval military-religious knightly orders. The Order of Saint Lazarus was established as a military and religious community at the time of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, probably some years before 1090.
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