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Arms of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre

The Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre walk in a procession at the First Annual Southeastern Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte, NC.

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is a Catholic chivalric order of Knighthood that traces its roots to Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade. According to reliable sources in the Vatican and Jerusalem, it began in historical reality as a mixed clerical and lay confraternity (association) of pilgrims which gradually grew around the most central of the Christian holy places in the Middle East, the Holy Sepulchre or the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were a common if dangerous practice from shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus to throughout the Middle Ages. Numerous detailed commentaries have survived as evidence of this early Christian devotional. While there were many places the pious visited during their travels, the one most cherished was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, first constructed by Constantine the Great in the fourth century AD. A local tradition, begun long before the Crusades, provided for the bestowing of knighthood upon qualified men whose presence, character and devotion were deemed worthy of enoblement by those entrusted to the care of the church. Later, this duty was assumed by the Kings of Jerusalem, then the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, and today it falls upon the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

By the eleventh century, however, political and military events had led to a suppression of this activity by Muslim rulers, in addition to persecution of local Christians and destruction of some of the sites themselves.

As it was for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre that the First Crusade was organized, so for its defence were certain military orders instituted. While not one of the original surviving Orders given a charter by Papal decree, the practice of bestowing knighthood at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre nevertheless became part of this mediaeval military movement toward reinstating a Christian presence in the Holy Land.

In 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon took no other title than that of "Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre", and other Latin princes, Bohemond I of Antioch and Tancred, Prince of Galilee, bound themselves as vassals of the Holy Sepulchre as they would to a king. The ultimate fall of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem to the Muslims in 1291 did not suspend pilgrimages to the Tomb of Christ, or the custom of receiving knighthood there, and when the custody of the Holy Land was entrusted to the Franciscan Order, they continued this pious custom and gave the order its first Grand Master after the death of the last King of Jerusalem. The kings had reserved that dignity to themselves previously.

Holy Sepulchre floor plan

The official arrival of the Franciscan Friars Minor in Syria dates from the Bull addressed by Pope Gregory IX to the clergy of Palestine in 1230, charging them to welcome the Friars Minor, and to allow them to preach to the faithful and hold oratories and cemeteries of their own. In the ten years' truce of 1229 concluded between Frederick II of Sicily and the sultan Al-Kamil, the Franciscans were permitted to enter Jerusalem, but they were also the first victims of the violent invasion of the Khwarezmians in 1244. Nevertheless, the Franciscan province of Syria continued to exist, with Acre as its seat.

The monks quickly resumed possession of their convent of Mount Sion at Jerusalem. The Turks tolerated the veneration paid to the tomb of Christ and derived revenue from the taxes levied upon pilgrims. In 1342, in his Bull Gratiam agimus, Pope Clement VI officially committed the care of the Holy Land to the Franciscans. (The restoration of a Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem by Pius IX in 1847 superseded the Franciscans.) Consequently, as early as 1336, the Franciscans were enrolling applicants among the lay confraternity of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, in ceremonies frequently mentioned in the itineraries of pilgrims.

In the early stages of development, the confraternity was not an order composed of religious, since it had no monastic rule, and until 1847, no regular organization, nor community of goods. It is possible that where mention is made of the "possessions of the Holy Sepulchre", the allusion is to the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre who had convents in various lands, and not to the knights. By the time of Franciscan control, however, the Order's character as a confraternity was well established, based on centuries of church tradition and papal recognition.

Those pilgrims deemed worthy of the honor were received into this confraternity with an elaborate ceremonial of ancient chivalry, although, in the early years, fundamental rules of the institution were not always observed. In point of fact all classes of society were represented in these pilgrimages. In the ceremonial of reception, the role of the clergy was limited to the benedictio militis, the dubbing with the sword being reserved to a professional knight, since the carrying of the sword was incompatible with the sacerdotal character.

From 1480 to 1495, there was in Jerusalem a German knight, John of Prussia, who acted as steward for the convent and regularly discharged this act reserved to knighthood. It was also of frequent occurrence that a foreign knight, present among the crowds of pilgrims, would assist at this ceremony. However, in default of other assistance, it was the superior who had to act instead of a knight, although such a course was deemed irregular, It was since then also that the superior of the convent assumed the title of Grand Master, a title which has been acknowledged by various pontifical diplomas, and finally by a Bull of Benedict XIV dated 1746.

When Pius IX re-established a Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1847, he transferred to it the office of Grand Master of the Order. At the same time he drew up and in 1868 published the new statutes of the order, which created the three ranks:

• Grand Cross
• Commander
• Knight

In 1932, a fourth rank, Commander "with star", was established.

Pius X ordained that the Order's surcoat be a "white cloak with the cross of Jerusalem in red enamel", and regulated the chancellor's fees. Pius X assumed the title of Grand Master, delegating his powers to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. The title of Grand Master is now held by a cardinal of the Roman Curia who is resident in Rome at the Palazzo del Rovere, a fifteenth century structure immediately adjacent to the Vatican which serves as the order's international headquarters. The Order is, along with the Knights of Malta a virtual Sovereign State with membership of many international bodies and observer status at others (such as the United Nations). The Grand Masters of the two Orders are thus Papal Viceroys who provide Vatican diplomacy with procedural support for making motions, proposing Amendments and requiring votes in the sphere of international diplomacy.

In ecclesiastical heraldry, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is one of only two Orders whose insignia may be displayed in a clerical coat of arms. (Laypersons have no such restriction.) Knights and Ladies of the order display their arms in the badge of the order, while Knights and Ladies of the rank Grand Cross surround their shield with a ribbon. Other ranks place the appropriate ribbon below the shield and may also display the red Jerusalem cross behind their shield.

• Nicola Cardinal Canali 1949–1960
• Eugène Cardinal Tisserant 1960–1972
• Maximilien Cardinal de Furstenberg (1972-1988)
• Giuseppe Cardinal Caprio (1988-1995)
• Carlo Cardinal Furno (1995-2007)
• John Patrick Cardinal Foley (2007 - present)

• Michel Sabbah (Grand Prior)
• Edward Nowak (Assessor)

• Noonan, Jr., James Charles (1996). The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the Roman Catholic Church. Viking, p.196. ISBN 0-670-86745-4. 

• Association of Papal Orders in Great Britain
• images
• Official Website
• United States - Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• Site of the Grand Magisterium of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Guy Sainty at archive.org. Accessed 2006-12-21.
• Papal Orders, Guy Sainty at archive.org. Accessed 2006-12-21.