Knights Hospitallers were members of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, a religious and military order. The order was also known as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and as the Hospitallers and, later, as the Knights of Rhodes and as the Knights of Malta.
The order originated with a group of men who ran a hospice (shelter) for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem during the late 1000’s. In 1113, while the group was under the leadership of a man named Gerard, Pope Paschal II recognized it as a religious order. By the mid-1100’s, the Hospitallers had also become a military order of Christian knighthood. During the 1100’s and 1200’s, the order helped provide a permanent force for the defense of Christian territories in the Holy Land.
In 1291, the order was forced to leave the Holy Land and located on the island of Cyprus. About 1309, it took the island of Rhodes from the Byzantine Empire and established itself there. From its base on Rhodes, the order became a Mediterranean seafaring power. For hundreds of years, it distinguished itself as a major Western European force against the Ottoman Empire, which was centered in what is now Turkey. But in 1522, the Ottoman ruler Suleyman I defeated the order, and the last knights left Rhodes on Jan. 1, 1523. In 1530, the order reestablished its headquarters, on the island of Malta. From Malta, it defended European interests in the Mediterranean until the French general Napoleon Bonaparte took Malta in 1798.
Today, the order no longer has a military function and focuses on caring for the sick. Its full name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta. But it is usually called the Knights of Malta.
