During the first Crusades, two religious and military orders emerged in the Holy Land that fought heroically against the enemies of God, defending the Church and Christianity: the Templars and the Hospitallers.
Newsroom (29/08/2023 18:20, Gaudium Press) Monsignor João Clá writes:
“Christian pugnacity showed its most emphatic face[1] in the Orders of Chivalry, whose beneficial influence on the Crusades is recorded in the annals of history.”[2]
This combativeness was maintained and enhanced by the practice of the three vows: obedience, poverty and chastity. The knights followed a Rule based on those of St. Augustine and St. Benedict.
Strength, drive and courage at the service of the Faith
In order to understand and love the noble ideal of the knight, we transcribe some comments made by Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira:
The knight “is the Catholic man capable, with the help of divine grace, of realizing the highest perfection of certain human qualities, when he is placed in the conditions of combat. In other words, when the circumstances of the struggle between good and evil put him in a position to fight, there he is manifesting a special form of excellence, emitting a particular brilliance from his soul. Brilliance and excellence that represent a marvelous way of being of the love of God itself, seen while refusing and defeating what is against Him.
He is a warrior trained to do good for Christendom through the strength of his arm and the intrepidity of his spirit. Strength, impetus, courage, put at the service of the Faith: this is his mission.
“On the other hand, however, knights were true artisans of peace, because they used force only to defend order against those who wanted to destroy it….
Piety, humility, chastity
“He is, above all, pious. When he left the battlefield, he immediately went to the castle chapel, knelt down and, moved, gave thanks to Our Lord for having escaped unscathed. Thanks, above all, for having driven away the barbarian pagan or Mohammedan, for having succeeded in bringing victory to those who were God’s, and for having made divine glory shine on his adversary. Then he stands before an image of Our Lady and prays to her in a special way, very grateful and moved.
“Then the other side of the knight appears. He is devout, he humbles himself, he rejoices in bowing before God.
“All this constitutes the moral profile of the knight. In war, heroic and feared; in peace, foresighted, because he knows that rest is only the breath between two battles. With God’s enemies, implacable; with friends, sweet and courteous.
“This affability, this Christian love that the knight has for his neighbor is reflected in his acts of charity, but also in his good manners, which are the way he externalizes his inner goodness. Thus, the knight is kind, distinguished, treats people well, giving them all due respect, and expects them to show him the same deference.
“Around him and those who are his equals, a ceremonial is formed, and a class is formed in which the education is more excellent, the language is more noble, flowery and beautiful. Where the elegance of dress and manners blossoms in a marked way, giving rise to the courtesy and distinction proper to knights. And, it has to be said, far from demeaning those who were inferior to them, in their ascension the knights also elevated the other layers of society, who learned from them refined language and good manners (…)
“It is the chaste man, because impurity is the opposite of chivalry, and the true complement of chivalry is virginity. The strength of the knight is not the violence of an ordinary barker, but the vigor of a pure man.”[3]
Conquered by the infidels through a false letter
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem was founded in 1113 by Brother Gerard, who ran a hospital in the Holy City. For this reason, its members came to be called Hospitallers.
As the number of their members increased and the valor they showed in battle, they were given fortresses in various regions of Palestine, including the Krak of the Knights, located in western Syria, which was donated to them in 1142 by Raimundo II, Count of Tripoli.
Built on top of a 650-meter hill, it was improved and became one of the most beautiful Crusader castles in the East. It had a main chapel, on whose walls there were frescoes, and a smaller one. Nine-meter-high walls and towers with arrows protected the Krak, which could house 2,000 men and hold food for five years.
The Mohammedans made several assaults on the Krak, but were unable to take it. Saladin and his army invaded the County of Tripoli in 1180, reached the fortress which was heroically resisted and they withdrew.
In 1271, Muslims surrounded the Krak and sent a letter to its commander, “signed” by the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, who was elsewhere and recommended surrender. The garrison, due to lack of vigilance, capitulated and the fortress was taken.
Battles of Malta and Lepanto
In 1291, when the Sultan of Egypt took St. John of Acre, which had become the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Templars and Hospitallers left the Holy Land. The latter settled in Cyprus – Mediterranean Sea – and then in Rhodes – Aegean Sea.
In 1530, Emperor Charles V gave them the island of Malta in southern Italy. In 1565, the Mohammedan Turks besieged it with a powerful fleet, but were soundly defeated by the Hospitallers, under the command of the heroic Grand Master Jean de la Valette.
At the Battle of Lepanto in western Greece on October 7, 1571, the Hospitallers played an important role in the Catholic victory against the Turks.
Napoleon Bonaparte, on his way to Egypt in 1798, using a clever lie, seized the island of Malta and expelled the Hospitallers. With their dispersion, non-Catholic sectors emerged and the true Order of Hospitallers disappeared.
And what happened to Krak?
Over the centuries, it has continued to exist, facing a thousand vicissitudes. In 1920, France took control of Syria by mandate of the League of Nations and restored the Fortress.
By Paulo Francisco Martos
Notions of Church History
[1] From the French: fulgurante.
[2] CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio, EP. Mary Most Holy! God’s Paradise Revealed to Men. São Paulo: Heralds of the Gospel. 2020, v. III, p. 83.
[3] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. The Knight, flower and glory of Christendom. In Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Year II, n. 10 (January 1999), p. 26-27.
The post Krak dos cavaleiros appeared first on Gaudium Press.
