It moved first to Cyprus, then Sicily and finally to France, settling on land near Orleans given by Louis VII. For a short period in the XVIIth century it manned 10 frigates on behalf of France (Source: James J Algrant A More Measured View of the Order of St Lazarus). Not being a wealthy order it was unable to continue with military activity. Whilst the fall of Acre in 1291 to the Islamic armies decimated the order in the Holy Land it had in the preceding years established itself through much of Europe. In England Roger de Mowbray, a participant in the Second Crusade is recorded as having given property to the order around 1157 allowing for a leper hospital to be established at what became Burton Lazars in Leicestershire (Source: David Marcomber The Leper Knights). A shortage of manpower in the holy land may well have been one of the reasons for the Lazarites taking on a more military role – though not a very successful one. From 1260 it became compulsory for those Knights Templar with leprosy to join the convent. From 1198 there was encouragement for knights with leprosy to join the convent (mainly applying to the Templars, the Knights of St John generally looking after their own) though connections with the Knights Templar may have existed from the 1150s. Following the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 a move was made to Acre on the Mediterranean coast. The convent and church appear to have been established outside the walls of Jerusalem. Whilst it is probable that the church and convent from which the order derived its origins existed some years before, the first written reference to it was made in 1142 – a granting of lands by King Fulk of Jerusalem to the church of St Lazarus (being the patron saint of lepers) and the convent of the sick. This photo was taken in March 2019 by Barnaby Miln.Ī Brief History of the Order of St Lazarus Conservation works stabilised the ruin in 2016. Excavations in 2015 found medieval pottery imported from France, fine window glass, and a carved stone shot-hole. In its long history it has also been known as the Castle of Inchgall. The tower, built in the late 14th century, was surrounded by a curtain wall with four round artillery towers. Lochore Castle was the fortress home of the Lochore family, established by Robert the Burgundian in c.1128. Owned for a while by Colonel Gayre it was later sold to Fife County Council at the creation of the Country Park on what had previous been coal mining land. The ruins of Lochore Castle – located at the gateway to Lochore Meadows Country Park, at Crosshill KY5 8BA, situated between Lochgelly and Benarty in Fife.

It became its collegiate church, the seat of the Hereditary Commandery of Lochore, named after a ruined castle owned by Colonel Gayre. It was the first church to have been acquired by the Order of St Lazarus since the Reformation. In 1971 Colonel Gayre bought St Vincent’s Church from its Vestry. Purchase of St Vincent’s Church, Edinburgh In 1967 Lieutenant Colonel Robert Gayre of Gayre and Nigg established a Commandery of the Order of St Lazarus, originally a hospitaller order set up in the Holy Land in the twelfth century.

The Military and Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem : The Hereditary Commandery of Lochore

Order st lazarus