The Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem is a federation of European (mostly Protestant) chivalric orders that share inheritance of the tradition of the medieval military Knights Hospitaller (Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem).
The Alliance was formed in 1961 to encourage closer collaboration between its member orders in matters of common concern, and comprises:
The Johanniter Orde in Nederland and the Johanniterorden i Sverige were formerly commanderies of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg. They became independent orders under the respective monarchs in 1946.
As John Brooke-Little (when Norroy and Ulster King of Arms) later put into writing,[ citation needed ] the principal impetus for the concordat of 1961 was not ecumenism or brotherhood: it was signed because none of the few remaining legitimate orders of Saint John could effectively shield themselves from the claims of the self-styled orders while the legitimate orders continuously debated among themselves which of them was legitimate. This concordat led to the establishment of the Alliance of the Orders of St. John. [1]
The presidency of the Alliance rotates between the four Orders of Saint John.
The four non-Catholic constituent orders of the Alliance also mutually recognise the Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM). SMOM is acknowledged as being the senior order, with the other Alliance members stemming from the same root. [2] [3] None of the five mutually-recognised orders accept the claims of any other organisation that calls itself an "Order of Saint John", (which SMOM, the Alliance Orders and others describe as "self-styled"), nor their claims to be successors of the medieval Order of Saint John, nor any right to use the name and symbols of that order.
In 1975, the Alliance Orders, together with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, established what is today known as the Committee on the Orders of Saint John, a collaborative body focused on protecting their shared heritage, including names and symbols. [4] For many years the president of the Committee was Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern (1924–2010), and more recently Lt. Col. Peregrine Bertie, brother of the former Grand Master of SMOM, Fra' Andrew Bertie (1929–2008). The current president is Fra' John T. Dunlap.
The French branch of the Johanniterorden was founded in 1960. [5] It is active in France and Madagascar. [6] It shelters relatives of hospital patients. [7]
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of a military, chivalric, and noble nature. Though it possesses no territory, the order is often considered a sovereign entity under international law.
A military order is a Christian religious society of knights. The original military orders were the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the Order of Saint James, the Order of Calatrava, and the Teutonic Knights. They arose in the Middle Ages in association with the Crusades, in the Holy Land, the Baltics, and the Iberian peninsula; their members being dedicated to the protection of pilgrims and Christians, as well as the defence of the Crusader states. They are the predecessors of chivalric orders.
The Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller is a collection of charitable organisations claiming continuity with the Russian Orthodox grand priory of the Order of Saint John.
The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Order of St John, and also known as St John International, is an order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.
The Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Chivalric Order of Saint John of the Hospital at Jerusalem, commonly known as the Order of Saint John or the Johanniter Order, is the German Protestant branch of the Knights Hospitaller, the oldest surviving chivalric order, which generally is considered to have been founded at Jerusalem in 1099.
An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades and paired with medieval concepts of ideals of chivalry.
St John Ambulance is the name of a number of affiliated organisations in mostly Commonwealth countries which teach and provide first aid, ambulance, and emergency medical services, and are primarily staffed by volunteers. The associations are overseen by the international Order of St John and its priories.
The Knights of Justice or Professed Knights, form the first of the three classes of members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta together with the professed conventual chaplains. They make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. According to the Order's Code, "they are religious in all respects and they comply with the universal and particular norms that concern them."
Order of Saint John or Knights Hospitaller is a chivalric order of the Crusades and early modern period, after 1530 also known as "Knights of Malta"
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there until 1291, thereafter being based in Kolossi Castle in Cyprus (1302–1310), the island of Rhodes (1310–1522), Malta (1530–1798), and Saint Petersburg (1799–1801).
Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V., commonly referred to as Die Johanniter, is a voluntary humanitarian organisation affiliated with the Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Order of St John, the German Protestant descendant of the Knights Hospitaller. The organisation was founded in 1952 in Hanover under the leadership of Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff. One of the main reasons for its creation was the rise in injuries and deaths from road traffic accidents. JUH participates in international aid efforts together with its sister organisations in other countries as part of the Johanniter International partnership; it also works with the German Malteser Hilfsdienst, affiliated to the Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta. As of 2017 the organisation had 37,000 active volunteers and youth members and around 1,300,000 registered members.
A self-styled order or pseudo-chivalric order is an organisation which claims to be a chivalric order, but is not recognised as legitimate by countries or international bodies. Most self-styled orders arose in or after the mid-18th century, and many have been created recently. Most are short-lived and endure no more than a few decades.
The Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Oecumenical Knights of Malta is one of the 26 unrecognised (self-styled) orders of St. John active in 2010. The investiture ceremonies of the Ecumenical Knights of Malta have been held at the First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Philanthropic activities have included supporting disaster relief, such as raising $600,000 to help victims of the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake.
Wilhelm Karl Adalbert Erich Detloff Prinz von Preussen was the third son of Prince Oskar of Prussia, and the last surviving grandson of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor. He was the thirty-sixth Master of Knights (Herrenmeister) of the Protestant Order of Saint John, also known as Der Johanniterorden, as his father's successor and his son's predecessor.
Johanniter International (JOIN) is the partnership of the four protestant Orders of St. John and their national charities. Its member organisations, based in Europe and the Middle East, work in close cooperation and are supported by more than 100,000 volunteers. They serve humanity with medical services and first aid, social care, international aid, disaster relief and youth work. The services of JOIN’s member organisations are open to everyone.
The Order of Saint John in Sweden is a Protestant chivalric order. It is a member of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem.
The Order of Saint John was organised in a system of commanderies during the high medieval to early modern periods, to some extent surviving as the organisational structure of the several descended orders that formed after the Reformation.
Oskar Michael Hans Karl Prinz von Preussen is a member of the House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling house of Germany. He is the thirty-seventh Herrenmeister of the Order of Saint John.
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