Knights of The Cross With The Red Star - Origin

Origin

There is some discussion as to the real beginnings of this order. Some authorities, among others the Bollandists, tracing it back to Palestine, where the first members were supposed to have borne arms against the Saracens. On the other hand, however, is the contemporary custom of establishing a religious congregation at the time of the foundation of a hospital, as well as the fact that in no document is there any trace of the Palestinian Cruciferi having gone to Bohemia. Moreover, in a parchment Breviary of the order dated 1356 the account of foundation contains no allusion to such a lineage.

The order as a distinct entity in the 13th century time can trace its origin to a Franciscan-based fraternity attached to a hospital at Prague under a community of Clarisses, established by Princess Agnes, in 1233, making it the only male order founded by a woman and the only Czech-founded order. In 1235 the hospital was richly endowed by the queen with property formerly belonging to the German order, a gift confirmed by Pope Gregory IX (18 May 1236), who stipulated that the revenues should be divided with the Clarisse monastery. After three years, during which the head of the congregation had gone to Rome as the accredited representative of abbess Agnes, and the congregation had been formally constituted an order under the Rule of St. Augustine by Gregory XI (1238), the abbess resigned all jurisdiction over the hospital and its possessions into the hands of the Holy See the next year. Twelve days later the pope formally assigned these to the recently confirmed Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, who were to hold them forever in fief to the Holy See, on condition of the yearly payment of a nominal sum.