Blessed Gérard (who died on September 3, 1120) was
most probably a Benedictine monk who was the
guest master of the Benedictine Monastery St. Maria Latina
in Jerusalem. The guest house,
situated on the other side of the road of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, was very big as it was always occupied by numerous pilgrims who came to see
the places where Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead. Because the journeys in
those days were a big strain, most of the pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem exhausted or sick.
Therefore the guest house of St. Maria Latina was more a hospital than a hotel and it was
in those days commonly known as the Hospital of Jerusalem. Apart from nursing the sick
they used to accommodate abandoned children, feed the starving, clothe the needy and care
for discharged prisoners. Blessed Gérard's hospital was a well organised charitable
organisation.
Blessed Gérard founded the Brotherhood of St. John of Jerusalem to run the hospital.
This community is the historical root of the Hospital Order of St. John, the oldest
hospital order of the Church (founded in 1099), known as the Sovereign
Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta or in short
the Order of the Knights of Malta, whose Anglican branch, The Grand Priory in the British
Realm of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John
of Jerusalem (founded in 1831), is well known in South Africa as The Priory of the Order
of St. John through its offspring the St.
John Ambulance
Association and Brigade (founded in 1877).
The statutes of the Brotherhood of St. John of Jerusalem are the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. John whose spirituality is going back
to the Benedictine principle of hospitality, expressed in chapter 53 of the Rule of St. Benedict which reads:
"All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will
say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). Proper honour must be shown to
all, especially to those who share our faith (Gal 6:10) and to pilgrims". And that is
exactly what the hospital of Jerusalem and its brotherhood did.
Blessed Gérard and his successors called the sick "the poor of Christ" or
simply "the holy poor" indicating that they being welcomed as Christ, thus
represent Christ to those who have the honour of serving them. Loving ones neighbour
therefore becomes worship of God and the members of the hospital order made the promise
"to be servants and slaves to our Lords, the sick". A principle of the
brotherhood's spirituality was right in the contradiction of the spirit of the time not to
gracefully grant favours to those in need and to be honoured for what they had done, but
to consider it a favour to have the honour of serving the needy and thus receive the grace
of being close to Christ who is being represented by the poor.
Such an attitude is still a contradiction to the Spirit of our times, where helpers often
consider themselves superior to those they help and do not realise what graceful chance
they miss to meet the Lord in the needy.
On the other hand the hospital of Jerusalem did not disregard the spiritual needs of their
Lords, the sick. The hospital was actually regarded as a spiritual community and the sick
were not only cared for bodily but also benefited from the pastoral care of the hospital.
The Rule of the Order of St. John reads in chapter 17:
"When a sick comes to the house ... he may be received as follows: After he has first
faithfully confessed his sins to a priest, he may receive Holy Communion, and afterwards
he may be carried to a bed and may be lovingly fed every day like the Lord, according to
the possibilities of the house, even before the brothers have their meal. And the Reading
and the Gospel may be read in the hospital on all Sundays and the sick may be sprinkled
with Holy Water during the procession."
The hospital was considered both a church building and church community anyway. The ward
was a big room with an altar inside, so that all the sick could participate in Holy Mass
without having to leave their beds.
All in all the brotherhood and the hospital order founded by Blessed Gérard thought of
the hospital as a community of saints: The brothers extended God's loving care to the
needy. They acted on Christ's behalf, because the church is the body of Christ and Christ
is thus acting at all times through his church. But the brothers met Christ in the Sick as
well (cf. "Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of
mine, you did it for me!" Mt. 25.40).
All involved, the brothers on the one hand and the sick on the other hand, are mutually
representing Christ, making life in the community of the hospital a mutual encounter with
the Lord and therefore an event of salvation.
The Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard sees itself as a revival of the Brotherhood of St. John
founded by the Blessed Gérard. It wants to revitalise the charisma of these origins and
adopt them and the brotherhood's spirituality into the context of our present time and
life situation.
It seeks to brotherly relate to all communities
and organisations standing in the same tradition and spirituality.
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Gérard
This page was last updated on Tuesday, 15 January 2013 12:50:23