The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (, , , postnominal initials: O.Cr., O.Crucig.), also known as the Military Order of the Crusaders of the Red Star is a Catholic religious order present in the Czech Republic and Austria. It is the only religious order of papal right originating from Bohemia and the only male religious order in the world founded by a woman. The spirituality of the Order nowadays consists of two pillars: The first is the pastoral care in the former so-called incorporated parishes, the second is the hospitaller charisma given to the Order in its beginnings by its founder, St. Agnes of Bohemia.
The Order is currently a community of canons regular. The institute of lay brothers, which existed in the Order throughout history, ceased to exist during the 18th century. The superior general of the Order receives an abbatial benediction and uses the title of Grand Master and General. His seat is in the Prague Crusader Monastery at the Old Town foot of the Charles Bridge.
The Order has 18 members, as of 1 January 2021.CATALOGUS ORDINIS MILITARIS CRUCIGERORUM CUM RUBEA STELLA. A.D. MMXXI.
History of the Order
Medieval age In 1233, St. Agnes of Bohemia founded a hospital fraternity of Franciscan tertiaries at her monastery in Prague. This community, inspired by the nursing military orders, was dedicated to the care of elderly, sick and other needy people. In 1235 the hospital was richly endowed by the Queen of Bohemia, Agnes's mother, with property formerly belonging to the Teutonic Knights. A few years later, in 1237 the Order had been formally constituted under the Rule of St. Augustine by Pope Gregory IX. Despite relatively clear origins of the Order, its beginnings used to be subject of legends, especially in the Baroque period: Traditionally its roots were traced back to Holy Land. Nevertheless, in a parchment Breviary of the Order, dated 1356, the account of foundation contains no allusion to such a crusader lineage. Many women were involved in the larger Franciscan movement such as Claire of Assisi who is mentioned later in this article but in Bohemia Agnes was the only woman to create an order of knights based in Franciscan Christianity which in this case makes her unique because no other woman has done this.
The Order moved to its present residence at the foot of the Prague Bridge in 1252, where its members not only took care of the hospital, but also became bridge keepers. The addendum "at the foot of the Prague Bridge" was attached to its name. The Order eventually spread its activities into other places in the Czech lands (České Budějovice, Cheb, Litoměřice, Stříbro, Znojmo-Hradiště, etc.). Thanks to Agnes's sister, Princess Anna, the Order expanded even to Silesian capital Wrocław. Members of the Order used to wear arms, a custom which was confirmed in 1292 by the Pope Nicholas IV. The Grand Master is still invested with a sword. The Order has been later on recognized as a military order by popes Clement X and Innocent XII.
During the Hussite Wars in the 15th century, the mission of many order hospitals was interrupted and some of order houses (commanderies) completely disappeared. At critical moments, the residence of the Grand Master was also temporarily moved to Cheb. However, the Prague hospital continued to serve and survived the turbulent period throughout the wars. After the end of the revolutionary years, there was a certain transformation of the role of the order clergy: Due to the shortage of Catholic secular priests, the members of the Order began to be appointed as parish priests. Yet the Order never gave up hospitality and this charisma has persisted in various forms to the present day. Orders of knights and knights are very prominent institutions that spanned all over Europe during the Middle Ages.
Historiography
There is little information available on the knights as the historiography is limited on eastern Europe. One of the only books that features a good amount of historiography on the Knights of the Cross of the Red Star is titled Blessed Gérard and his “Everlasting Brotherhood”: The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Its foundation and spiritual roots by author Gérard Lagleder. This book focuses on different orders of knights and features information on the knights such as when they were founded and by who and where they were located. Many historians ignore the entirety of Eastern Europe and typically only mention the Teutonic knights and hosptilar knights. One other that tries to move away from this is Florin Curta in his book titled Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300). In this book he mentions other orders of knights in Eastern Europe such as the knights of Christ and the Knights Dobrzyn orders. While historiography on this order is limited, there is a large amount of information available on the founder of the Knights of The Cross of the Red Star Agnes of Bohemia. Much of this information can be found from letters that were written between her and Clare of Assi who was a kind of mentor to Agnes of Bohemia. Thes letters have been translated by author Joan Mueller in her book titled Clare of Assisi: The Letters to Agnes. In this book she translates letters written between Clare of Assisi and Agnes of Bohemia, the founder of the knights. These letters do not directly mention a great deal of information about the knights, but they do talk about Agnes’s movement to Franciscan Christianity which is why knights focused on the helping of the poor. In the first letter that was translated from 1234 Clare of Assisi congratulates her on turning down her marriage proposal from Fredrick the 2nd and instead choosing to become a nun. Later Anges writes to Clare of Assisi again because she was seeking advice about what to do with her monastery because the pope would grant her the privilege of poverty. The pope would not grant her this privilege because at first he was worried that accepting a church founded by a woman with no guarantee of revenue would be bad for the church of Rome. But however, in 1237 this privilege of poverty would be granted to Agnes and her monastery with the help of Clare of Assisi. The Knights of the Cross of the Red Star reflect the growing Franciscan movement in Europe during the 1200s and it shows that this movement was becoming increasingly more popular in Europe due to it now reaching all the way to Eastern Europe in Bohemia as shown by Agnes and her church founded on these ideals. It also shows that while there is lacking historiography on eastern Europe the Pope and the church were heavily involved with expanding there reach all the way to Bohemia. This can be seen in the Pope’s willingness to grant Agnes rights to her monastery was well as the letters between the two of them.
Importance of the Order
As mentioned earlier, there is limited histography available on Saint Agnes of Bohemia and her order of the Knights of the cross of the Red Star. This is a very unique order as it is the only order of knights to be founded by a woman, and it was a Franciscan order which at this time was not very common in bohemia as the Franciscan movement was slowly beginning to spread to Eastern Europe. The book titled History of the Franciscan Movement Volume 1: from beginnings of the order to the year 1517 mentions multiple women during the movement such as Saint Clare who during her time was somewhat of a mentor to Agnes as the wrote letters back and forth to each other. While many women did help with the Franciscan movement Agnes and her order remain unique in that she was the only woman to have founded an order of knights and also that she was a key woman for movement in Eastern Europe.
Early modern period
Thanks to several capable Grand Masters, the Order entered the early modern period in quite good condition. In 1562 the Grand Master Antonín Brus of Mohelnice even became Archbishop of Prague. This appointment marks the end of a long period of sede vacante of the St. Adalbert's See. Since then, archbishops of Prague had held the post of Grand Master for almost a hundred and fifty years. The Order thus gained a prestigious role, yet at the same time it was obliged to economically support the impoverished Prague Diocese and to finance its development.
Of this long period, the last two Grand Master on the St. Adalbert's See, Arnost Vojtěch of Harrach and Jan Bedřich of Waldstein, are worth mentioning. Arnost Vojtěch of Harrach became the head of the Order in 1623 and was appointed Cardinal by Pope Urban VIII in 1626. He died in 1667, making him the longest serving Grand Master of the Order. After his death, Jan Bedřich of Waldstein became a new Grand Master, building on the work of his predecessor. He continued the reconstruction of the monastery at Charles Bridge, which he completed with the construction of a new church designed by the architect J. B. Mathey. In 1692, Jan Bedřich of Wallenstein, with the help of his later successor and then Prior of the Order, Jiří Ignác Pospíchal, completed the building of St. Agnes Hospital, which stood on the site of today's Slavia Café at the corner of Národní třída in Prague.
The Order flourished also in the first half of the 18th century. Grand Master John Francis Franchimont of Frankenfeld was granted by Pope Clement XI the right to use mitre and other pontifical insignia (crosier, pectoral cross, ring) for himself and his successors. This right was later given also to the provost at the monastery of St. Hippolytus in Hradiště near Znojmo. (After the reforms related to the Second Vatican Council, only the Grand Master of the Order has this privilege.) During the 18th century the Order spread its activities to various places outside the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. In 1723 it was installed at the hospital of St. Martin and Leopold in Bratislava, in 1733 at the Karlskirche in Vienna. In 1770 Maria Theresa invested the Order with the administration of the prominent parish at Buda Castle. During this period, the Order hired great artists of the Baroque era. Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer built the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Karlovy Vary, while Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach built the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Karlsplatz, Vienna. The painters Václav Vavřinec Reiner, Petr Brandl, Karel Škréta and Michael Willmann used to work for the Order.
19th century Even the last third of the 18th century was marked by significant changes in the life of the Order. Under the Josephine reforms, the hospitals in Prague (Písané lázně) and in Bratislava at St. Martin and Leopold were abolished. The trend towards the reduction of the role of the Order in health and social services was ongoing throughout the 19th century. The initiative of Grand Master Josef Antonín Köhler, who founded the first children's a nursery in Bohemia in Prague-Karlín, can be described as a certain substitute, or perhaps a new expression, of the Order's original charisma. Overall, though, the focus of the Order's work was shifted to pastoral care in parishes.
During this period the Order was forced to give up most of its foreign locations for political reasons (Bratislava 1786, Wrocław 1810, Budapest 1882). However, these losses were compensated, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century, by the expansion of activities even in new locations in the Czech lands (Karlovy Vary-Rybáře, Věteřov). From the history of the first half of the 19th century, we can also mention the fate of the Order's member Karl Anton Postl, who illicitly left the Order in 1823 during a spa stay in Karlovy Vary and his trace was thereafter lost. It was only after his death that his further life story came to light: After his desertion from the Order, Postl became a successful writer, publishing under the pseudonym Charles Sealsfield.