The Knights of the Order of St Lazarus: Leprosy, Faith and Service

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The Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem was one of the most unusual religious military orders of the medieval world. If the Knights Templar represented defence of pilgrims and the Knights Hospitaller represented care for the sick and the protection of Christian travellers, the Order of St Lazarus represented service to those whom medieval society most feared: the leprous, the disfigured and the excluded.

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The Order of St Lazarus was never as wealthy or as widespread as the Templars or Hospitallers, but this should not make it seem unimportant. Its vocation was more specialised. It served at the harshest edge of medieval Christian charity: caring for those with leprosy, receiving diseased knights from other orders, and preserving dignity for men and women who might otherwise have been pushed outside ordinary society.

Its story brings together illness, exclusion, Christian mercy, crusading warfare and the long survival of a religious charitable tradition.

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Leprosy in the Middle Ages

In the medieval period, leprosy was one of the most feared diseases in society. Today it is known as Hansen’s disease, a bacterial infection that affects the skin, nerves, eyes and limbs. Modern medicine shows that it is not easily spread and usually requires prolonged close contact with an untreated person. Medieval people did not understand bacteria or transmission in this way, and leprosy was often surrounded by fear, religious interpretation and social stigma.

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Those affected could suffer visible skin changes, loss of sensation, wounds, deformity, blindness and long-term disability. Because the disease could alter a person’s appearance and make them visibly vulnerable, lepers were often separated from ordinary community life. Many were placed in leper hospitals or houses outside towns, where they received food, shelter, prayer and basic care. These institutions were not hospitals in the modern clinical sense, but religious charitable communities where care of the sick was understood as a Christian duty.

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Leprosy, Sin and Suffering in the Medieval Mind

Medieval people often interpreted disease through a spiritual lens. Leprosy could be seen as punishment, trial, purification or a visible sharing in Christ’s suffering. This created a deep contradiction. Lepers were feared and separated, yet they were also objects of Christian charity, prayer and compassion.

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The leper occupied a difficult place in medieval Christian society. He or she might be excluded from normal village or town life, but was also seen as someone through whom others could perform works of mercy. To feed, clothe and care for a leper was to serve Christ among the suffering. This belief gave leper hospitals a deeply religious purpose. They were places of care, but also places of prayer, repentance and spiritual service.

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It was from this world of fear, faith and compassion that the Order of St Lazarus emerged.

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Origins in Jerusalem

The Order of St Lazarus developed in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Its origins lay in a leper hospital outside the walls of Jerusalem, traditionally associated with St Lazarus, the biblical figure raised by Christ and later regarded as a patron of lepers. A leper hospital existed in Jerusalem before the Order became fully established, and by the 12th century it had developed into a recognised religious community devoted to the care of those with leprosy.

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The Order’s original purpose was not military. It was hospitaller and charitable: to care for lepers, especially those within the crusader states who had no place in ordinary society. Its members lived under religious discipline and were associated with prayer, service and the care of the sick.

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Unlike the Templars, whose first purpose was military protection, or the Hospitallers, whose hospital became increasingly militarised, the Order of St Lazarus began with the leper hospital itself. Its identity was formed around those who were already wounded, already suffering and already separated from the ordinary world.

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From Hospital Brothers to Fighting Monks

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The Order of St Lazarus later developed a military role in the Holy Land. This change was shaped by the realities of the crusader states, where manpower was always limited and every fighting man could be valuable. The Order became particularly associated with knights who had contracted leprosy.

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For the Templars and Hospitallers, leprosy created a serious problem. A knight who became leprous could no longer easily remain within the ordinary life of his order. In the crusader states, leprous knights from other religious military orders were expected, or at least strongly encouraged, to enter the Order of St Lazarus. This allowed them to continue living under religious discipline while being cared for within a community created for those with the disease.

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This transfer should not be seen simply as rejection. A Templar or Hospitaller who entered St Lazarus because of leprosy did not cease to be a man of vows, discipline and courage. He remained a religious brother and, where physically able, a knight. St Lazarus gave him a new religious home when his former Order could no longer safely or practically keep him.

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This is why St Lazarus became known as the order of the “leper knights”. It was not made up only of lepers. Healthy brothers, chaplains, servants and supporters also served the Order. But its special identity came from its care for lepers and its willingness to receive knights whom other orders could no longer keep.

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The Green Cross of St Lazarus

Just as the Templars became associated with the red cross and the Hospitallers with the white cross, the Order of St Lazarus became associated with the green cross. In later tradition this became one of the Order’s most recognisable symbols, linking it with healing, renewal and its ancient care for lepers.

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The green cross also helps explain why the Order deserves to be remembered beside the greater crusading orders. It was not simply another military brotherhood. It carried a different sign and a different burden. Its cross marked a vocation of service to those whose illness placed them at the edge of medieval society.

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Brothers-in-Arms with the Greater Orders

The military role of the Order of St Lazarus was probably never large, but it was symbolically powerful. In the Holy Land, Lazarite knights fought alongside the Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights and other crusader forces when the survival of the Latin East was at stake.

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The leper knights were not a separate army operating alone. They formed part of wider crusader forces, likely serving in small contingents under their own officers but fighting within the same battle lines as the other military orders. In battle they may have served as heavy cavalry when physically able, supported by healthy brothers, sergeants and servants. Their disease did not necessarily make them unable to fight, especially in its earlier stages, but it did make their service more fragile and often more desperate.

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On the battlefield, the Lazarites did not replace the Templars or Hospitallers. They fought beside them. They were part of the same crusading world, sharing the same dangers and the same enemies, but carrying a unique burden: many of their brethren were already marked by illness. Their presence in battle gave physical form to the medieval idea that service to God did not end with sickness.

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The relationship between the Lazarites and the Templars or Hospitallers should not be imagined simply as one of rejection or contempt. Medieval society feared leprosy, and separation was real, but within the world of the crusading orders these men were still religious brothers and knights. A Templar or Hospitaller who entered St Lazarus because of leprosy had not abandoned his vows. He had entered an Order where those vows could still be lived.

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There is little direct evidence recording the personal feelings of Templars or Hospitallers towards leprous knights. However, the fact that the Lazarites fought alongside them, received land and privileges, and were recognised by the Church suggests that they were not simply despised outcasts. They were feared because of the disease, but also respected for their continued service despite it.

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La Forbie: The Battle That Nearly Destroyed the Order

The most devastating moment in the military history of the Order came at the Battle of La Forbie, near Gaza, in October 1244. The crusader army, including the Templars, Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights and the Order of St Lazarus, faced an Egyptian Ayyubid army supported by Khwarazmian forces. The result was a catastrophe for the Latin East.

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The crusader army was shattered. Many senior nobles and religious knights were killed or captured, and the military orders suffered terrible losses. The Order of St Lazarus was especially badly damaged. Later tradition and papal evidence suggest that the leprous fighting brethren were almost wiped out. By 1253, Pope Innocent IV allowed healthy knights to hold leadership within the Order, because so many of its leprous knights had been killed by the enemies of the faith.

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La Forbie was to the Order of St Lazarus what the fall of Acre would later become to the crusader states: a moment of near-destruction. The Templars and Hospitallers also suffered grievously, but for the smaller Lazarite Order the losses were existential. After the battle, the Order had to rely increasingly on healthy knights, chaplains, brothers and European estates to survive.

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The Order did not disappear. It continued in the East, including at Acre, and remained part of the crusading world until the final collapse of the mainland crusader states. But La Forbie changed its future. The Order could no longer rely only on leprous knights for leadership and military service. Healthy brethren became increasingly important, and the Order’s long-term survival depended more and more on its estates, hospitals and charitable foundations in Europe.

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The Order Comes to England

The Order of St Lazarus was established in England in the 12th century. Its chief English house became Burton Lazars in Leicestershire, founded through the patronage of Roger de Mowbray, one of the great Anglo-Norman nobles and a crusader. The hospital at Burton Lazars was dedicated to St Mary and St Lazarus and became the principal English centre of the Order.

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The exact earliest arrival of the Order in England is not entirely straightforward. Burton Lazars became the leading house, but evidence from Harehope in Northumberland suggests that this may also have been one of the earliest Lazarite foundations in the country. Both were connected with the same period of 12th-century crusading patronage.

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Burton Lazars was not merely one hospital among many. It became the English head house of the Order, the place from which its estates, hospitals and dependent properties were administered. For England, Burton Lazars was to St Lazarus what Clerkenwell was to the Hospitallers: the central point of authority, memory and identity.

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Medieval evidence records Burton Lazars as being governed by a master and a small community, traditionally including eight knights. This should not be imagined as a huge military headquarters, but as a religious hospital and estate centre, supported by land, rents, churches and dependent properties.

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Why Sites such as Burton Lazars Were Chosen

Lazarite hospitals were often placed carefully in the landscape. They were commonly located away from the centre of settlements, partly because lepers were separated from ordinary parish life, but also because hospitals needed space, water, fields, gardens, burial areas and sometimes fishponds.

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Burton Lazars reflects this pattern. It lay on the edge of the local manor and village landscape, close enough to receive support, alms and supplies, but far enough away to provide separation for the sick. Such sites were practical as well as spiritual. They allowed the community to live, pray, farm, care for the sick and manage its own enclosed space.

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Lazarite sites often needed to be close to roads and routes of movement, but not at the heart of busy settlements. This allowed travellers, benefactors and officials to reach them, while maintaining the separation expected for those suffering from leprosy. They needed access to the world, but also distance from it.

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The presence of water was especially important. At Burton Lazars, the landscape included springs, ponds and water-management features. Local tradition and later interpretation link the site with a natural sulphurous spring. In the medieval mind, mineral water was often believed to have healing or cleansing properties, especially for skin conditions. Whether or not such water had any true medical effect on leprosy, it would have been valued for bathing, washing wounds and providing a sense of treatment and relief.

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This combination of isolation, water, land and access made Burton Lazars an ideal site for a Lazarite hospital and preceptory.

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Lazarite Houses, Lands and Churches in England

From Burton Lazars, the Order built up an English network of hospitals, manors, churches and estates. Its purpose in England was partly charitable and partly economic. The hospitals cared for lepers and the poor, while the estates generated the income needed to support that work and the wider Order.

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Important Lazarite sites in England included Burton Lazars in Leicestershire, Harehope in Northumberland, Locko in Derbyshire, Choseley in Norfolk, and lands at Wymondham in Norfolk. The Order also held or was associated with churches, chapels, manors and smaller parcels of land across several counties. Some sites were true hospital communities; others were estate holdings whose income helped support the Order’s charitable and religious work.

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Locko in Derbyshire was one of the more significant English Lazarite sites outside Burton Lazars, with a hospital and preceptory dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. Choseley in Norfolk and Wymondham also formed part of the Order’s eastern network, while Burton Lazars remained the central English house. The Order’s English estates were never on the scale of the Templars or Hospitallers, but they were substantial enough for the Lazarites to survive for centuries.

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Purpose of the Order in Medieval England

In England, the Order of St Lazarus continued to present itself as a community devoted to lepers. This identity was powerful. Leprosy carried deep religious and emotional meaning in medieval society, and care for lepers was regarded as an act of Christian mercy.

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Yet the Order’s English role was not only medical or charitable. Like other religious orders, it managed land, collected rents, held rights in churches and maintained estates. Its hospitals required income, and landownership was the means by which religious charity was funded. The Lazarites therefore combined prayer, care, estate management and spiritual duty.

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By the later Middle Ages, leprosy declined in England, and the Order’s work became less focused on active leper care. Nevertheless, the image of St Lazarus and the duty to care for the sick remained central to its identity.

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Suppression, Survival and Modern Purpose

The medieval Order of St Lazarus in England survived until the Reformation. Burton Lazars and the English Lazarite properties were suppressed under Henry VIII in the 16th century, along with many other religious houses and charitable institutions.

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The history of the military orders then took different paths. The Knights Templar had already been suppressed as a religious order in the early 14th century. The medieval Hospitallers were dissolved in England during the Reformation, although the wider Order survived abroad and, in Britain, the modern Order of St John later developed into a major charitable movement associated with St John Ambulance. The Order of St Lazarus, by contrast, continued its identity as a religious and charitable order, with its historic focus on leprosy and care for those in need.

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Today, the Order of St Lazarus still exists in the United Kingdom as a Christian charitable chivalric order. Its modern work is no longer medieval hospital care, but it continues the Lazarite tradition through charity, prayer and service. Its charitable focus includes support for those affected by Hansen’s disease, the relief of poverty, care for the disadvantaged, hospice support and education.

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Why the Order of St Lazarus Deserves to be Remembered

The Order of St Lazarus deserves to stand beside the Templars and Hospitallers in the story of the crusading orders. Its knights may have been fewer, its houses poorer and its military reputation less famous, but its calling was one of the most demanding of all. It served where fear, sickness and faith met.

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In the leper knight, medieval Christendom saw something extraordinary: a man wounded before battle began, yet still bound by vows, still part of the brotherhood of arms, and still called to serve God. The Order of St Lazarus reminds us that medieval knighthood was not only about warfare, castles and crusading glory. At its best, it was also about service: caring for the sick, defending the vulnerable and seeing Christ in those whom society most feared or rejected.