The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (, OESSH), also called the Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the Holy See. The pope is the sovereign of the order. The order creates canons as well as knights, with the primary mission to "support the Christian presence in the Holy Land". It is an internationally recognised order of chivalry. The order is estimated to have some 30,000 knights and dames in 60 lieutenancies around the world. The Catholic Order is distinct from the Greek Orthodox "Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre", presided over by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The Cardinal Grand Master has been Fernando Filoni since 2019, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is ex officio the Order's Grand Prior. Its headquarters are situated at the Palazzo Della Rovere and its official church in Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo, both in Rome, close to Vatican City. In 1994, Pope John Paul II declared the Virgin Mary as the order's patron saint under the title "Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Palestine".

Name

The name of the knights and order varied over the centuries, including and The Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The current name was determined on 27 July 1931 as the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (with of Jerusalem as honorary suffix) by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonies of the Holy See. The term equestrian in this context is consistent with its use for orders of knighthood of the Holy See, referring to the chivalric and knightly nature of order—by sovereign prerogative conferring knighthood on recipients—derived from the equestrians (), a social class in Ancient Rome.

History

The history of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem runs common and parallel to that of the religious Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre. Following the papal suppression of the Order of the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Innocent VIII in 1489 (Cum solerti meditatione), the religious order was formally incorporated into the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. This measure, however, did not mean that the male branch of the order disappeared immediately or uniformly. In several parts of Europe, particularly within the Holy Roman Empire and in Poland, communities of male canons regular of the Holy Sepulchre continued to exist for a considerable period, often under the protection of secular rulers.

For example, the monastery at Denkendorf remained active into the 16th century, while in the Low Countries the Klooster Hoogcruts continued in operation until its suppression during the French Revolutionary period. Of particular importance was the monastic complex at Miechów, which developed into the principal centre of the order in Central Europe and effectively served as its headquarters after the decline in importance of Perugia. The last Superior General of the order died there in 1830, underscoring the continued institutional existence of the male branch into the 19th century. According to some sources, the male branch survived until the death of Piotr Pękalski in 1874. The female branch was more robust and continued to exist until today in the UK and the Netherlands.

Background Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were a common, if hazardous, practice from shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus to throughout the Middle Ages. Numerous detailed commentaries have survived as evidence of this early Christian devotion. While there were many places the pious visited during their travels, the one most cherished was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, first constructed by Constantine the Great in the 4th century AD.

During the era of the Islamic expansion, Emperor Charlemagne (–814) sent two embassies to the caliph of Baghdad, asking Frankish protectorate over the Holy Land. An epic recounts his legendary adventures in the Mediterranean and pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

By virtue of its defining characteristic of subinfeudation, in feudalism it was common practice for knights commanders to confer knighthoods upon their finest soldiers, who in turn had the right to confer knighthood on others upon attaining command. Tradition maintains, that long before the Crusades, a form of knighthood was bestowed upon worthy men at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In any case, during the 11th century, prior to the Crusades, the "" were established to protect Christians and Christian premises in the Occident.

Persecution of Christians in the Holy Land intensified and relations with Christian rulers were further strained when Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009.Lev (1995), pp. 203, 205–208

Crusades

The crusades coincided with a renewed concern in Europe for the holy places, with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as one of the most important places. According to an undocumented tradition, Girolamo Gabrielli of the Italian Gabrielli family, who was the leader of 1000 knights from Gubbio, Umbria, during the First Crusade, was the first crusader to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after Jerusalem was seized in 1099.

Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291)

After the capture of Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade in 1099, the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre were established to take care of the church. The men in charge of securing its defence and its community of canons were called . Together, the canons and the milites formed part of the structure of which evolved into the modern Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Baldwin I, the first king of Jerusalem, laid the foundations of the kingdom and established its main institutions on the French pattern as a centralised feudal state. He also drew up the first constitution of the order in 1103, modelled on the chapter of canons that he founded in Antwerp prior to his departure, under which the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem (who had supplanted the Greek Orthodox patriarch) appointed knights in Jerusalem at the direct service of the crown, similar to the organisation of third orders. Adopting the rule of Saint Augustine, with recognition in 1113 by Papal Bull of Pope Paschal II, with the attached, it is considered among the oldest of the chivalric orders. Indications suggest that Hugues de Payens (c. 1070–1136) was among the Milites Sancti Sepulcri during his second time in Jerusalem in 1114–16, before being appointed "Magister Militum Templi", establishing the Knights Templar.Alain Demurger, The Knights Templar, a Christian chivalry in the Middle Ages, Paris, Seuil, coll. "Points History"2008(1 st ed. 2005), pocket, 664 p. 26 ()

Between –, Gerard (), the Prior of the Holy Sepulchre, along with Patriarch Warmund of Jerusalem, wrote a significant letter to Diego Gelmírez, Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela citing crop failures and being threatened by their enemies; they requested food, money, and military aid in order to maintain the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Malcolm Barber, A. K. Bate, Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries (Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), p. 43 Gerard consequently participated among others in the Council of Nablus, 16 January 1120. In it, Canons 20–21 deal with clerics. Canon 20 says a cleric should not be held guilty if he takes up arms in self-defence, but he cannot take up arms for any other reason nor can he act like a knight. This was an important concern for the crusader states; clerics were generally forbidden from participating in warfare in European law, but the crusaders needed all the manpower they could find and, only one year before, Antioch had been defended by the Latin patriarch of Antioch following the Battle of Ager Sanguinis, one of the calamities referred to in the introduction to the canons. Canon 21 says that a monk or canon regular who apostatizes should either return to his order or go into exile.

In 1121, Pope Callixtus II issued a bull formally erecting the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre with specific responsibilities to defend the Church Universal, protect the City of Jerusalem, guard the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and pilgrims, and fight in the defence of Christianity.

In total, as a result of these military needs, five major chivalric communities were established in the Kingdom of Jerusalem between the late 11th century and the early 12th century: the Knights Hospitaller (Order of Saint John) (circa 1099), the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre (circa 1099), the Knights Templar (circa 1118), the Knights of Saint Lazarus (1123), and the Knights of the Hospital of Saint Mary of Jerusalem (Teutonic Knights) (1190).

Today, the Order of Knights Templar no longer exists (other than its successor in Portugal – the Order of Christ), the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is recognised as the successor to the medieval Order of Saint Lazarus, the successor to the Teutonic Order is a purely religious order of the Catholic Church, but both the Order of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre continue as chivalric orders recognised by the Holy See.

The , establishing in 1123 an alliance of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with the Republic of Venice, was later signed by Patriarch Warmund and Prior Gerard of the Holy Sepulchre, along with Archbishop Ehremar of Caesarea, Bishop Bernard of Nazareth, Bishop Aschetinus of Bethlehem, Bishop Roger of Bishop of Lydda, Guildin the Abbot of St. Mary of Josaphat, Prior Aicard of the Templum Domini, Prior Arnold of Mount Zion, William Buris, and Chancellor Pagan. Aside from William and Pagan, no secular authorities witnessed the treaty, perhaps indicating that the allied Venetians considered Jerusalem a papal fief.

Meanwhile, beyond the Holy Land, in Spain, during the Reconquista, military orders built their own monasteries which also served as fortresses of defence, though otherwise the houses followed monastic premises. A typical example of this type of monastery is the Calatrava la Nueva, headquarters of the Order of Calatrava, founded by the Abbot of Fitero, Raymond, at the behest of King Sancho III of Castile, to protect the area restored to the Islamic rulers. Other orders such as the Order of Santiago, Knight Templars and the Holy Sepulchre devoted much of their efforts to protect and care for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Furthermore, at the Siege of Bayonne in October 1131, three years before his death, King Alfonso I of Aragon, having no children, bequeathed his kingdom to three autonomous religious orders based in the Holy Land and politically largely independent – the Knights Templars, the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre – whose influences might have been expected to cancel one another out. The will has greatly puzzled historians, who have read it as a bizarre gesture of extreme piety uncharacteristic of Alfonso that effectively undid his life's work. Elena Lourie (1975) suggested instead that it was Alfonso's attempt to neutralize the papacy's interest in a disputed succession – Aragon had been a fief of the Papacy since 1068 – and to fend off his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, for the Papacy would be bound to press the terms of such a pious testament.Pope Innocent II indeed did write Alfonso VII to just this effect, 10 June 1135 or 36 (Lourie 1995:645).

On 15 July 1149 in the Holy Land, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was consecrated after reconstruction.

Crusade vows meant that even if a person wasn't able to make the journey to Holy Sepulchre himself, sometimes his cloak was taken there, as was the case with King Henry the Young of England (1155–1183). Robert the Bruce and James Douglas, Lord of Douglas even asked to have their hearts taken to the Holy Sepulchre after death.