The Grand Master of the
Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910) is the leader of a
fraternal order
A fraternal order is a fraternity organised as an order, with traits alluding to religious, chivalric or pseudo-chivalric orders, guilds, or secret societies. Contemporary fraternal orders typically have secular purposes, including social, cult ...
claiming legacy and contingency to the medieval Catholic
military order, the
Order of Saint Lazarus
The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem or simply as Lazarists, was a Catholic military order (monastic society), military order founded by crusaders around 1119 at a leprosy, leper hospital in Jerus ...
.
It claims continuity by assertion that during the period from 1814 to 1841, the order was under the direction of the Council of Officers with
King Louis XVIII (1814-1824) and
King Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Loui ...
(1824-1831) as Protectors of the joint Orders, and was then passed on, evolving into the current list of
Grand Masters.
Council of Officers
The Order lost its Royal Protection in 1831 but, according to some pretensions, continued to function under the direction of the Council of Officers.
Modern Order of Saint Lazarus
The period following the loss of Temporal Protection of the French Royal Family in 1831 until 1910 is controversial. Some claim that the order did not survive, whereas some claim the period is at best shrouded in mystery since no contemporary documentation seems to have survived.
Modern tradition of the
Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910) maintains that, after 1841, the
Melkite Greek Catholic
el, Μελχιτική Ελληνική Καθολική Εκκλησία
, image = Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Damascus, Syria.jpg
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, abbreviatio ...
Patriarchs
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certa ...
assumed the leadership of the Order, as Hospitaller Nobles of St. Lazarus.
Malta obedience
Paris obedience
United Order (reunification of the former Malta and Paris obediences)
Orléans obedience (since 2004)
References
{{Reflist
External links
Malta-Paris obedience of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem(under the Grand Mastership of Francisco de Borbón y Hardenberg)
Orléans obedience of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem(under the Grand Mastership of Jan Dobrzensky z Dobrzenic)
Research Library maintained by the Office of the Grand Archivist & Historian of the united MHOSLJ(this source provides access to the full original cartulary of the Order with original documents, including all the relevant original Papal Bulls, dating back to the 12th century)
Saint Lazarus