The Church of Saint Mary of the Latins ( la, Latina) was a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

building in the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...

in the Crusader

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establishe ...

History

In around the middle of the 11th century,

Amalfi Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic c ...

tan traders obtained permission from the

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

to build the church of Sainte Marie-Latine next to the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, as well as a hospice for the accommodation of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. The hospice-hospital was run by

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks. Prior to the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...

(1095-1099) and the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 by the

Latins The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic. Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...

, this first

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

hospice-hospital only functioned as such. At that time the institution later known as military orders didn't exist yet. In the 12th century, Crusader historian William of Tyre writes about the existence of a monastery, belonging to the people of Amalfi, which took charge of the hospital and its chapel. The latter had been dedicated to the patriarch of Alexandria, John the Almoner (610–616). However, in the early years of the 12th century, after the First Crusade, the enigmatic figure of Pierre Gerard or Gerard Tenque appeared in Jerusalem, a personality swathed in legend. Neither his homeland, his family, nor his education are known, yet according to all indications to date, it is he who founded the

Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

(

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani''), also known as the 'Order of Saint John', 'Knights Hospitaller', etc. The "great" church was allegedly sacked by

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

after the fall of Jerusalem.

Location and identification

Confusingly, there were two Crusader-era Churches of St Mary in close proximity to each other in the Hospitallers' Qarter. Medieval sources are using three different names when they are addressing the two churches: St Mary of the Latins, St Mary Minor, and St Mary Major. Different researchers have identified them differently, but

Conrad Schick Conrad Schick (1822–1901) was a German architect, archaeologist and Protestant missionary who settled in Jerusalem in the mid-nineteenth century.Perry & Yodim (2004) For many decades he was head of the "House of Industry" at the Christ Church, ...

and most modern researchers see St Mary of the Latins as being one and the same as St Mary Minor, its ruins now built over by the

German Protestant The religion of Protestantism, a form of Christianity, was founded within Germany in the 16th-century Reformation. It was formed as a new direction from some Roman Catholic principles. It was led initially by Martin Luther and later by John Cal ...

Church of the Redeemer. The remains of St Mary Major have completely disappeared under the 1901 Greek Aftimos Market.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Saint Mary of the Latins Churches in Jerusalem Ancient churches in the Holy Land Church buildings in the Kingdom of Jerusalem Former buildings and structures in Jerusalem Saint Mary Latin Saint Mary Latin, Jerusalem Saint Mary Latin, Jerusalem

History

Location and identification

See also

References