Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910)

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Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem

Coat of arms of the Order of Saint Lazarus statuted in 1910
Abbreviation	OSLJ
Established	1910
Type	Confraternal order
Legal status	Incorporated in various countries, but disputed by some historians
Purpose	"Care and assistance of the sick and the poor, and to the support and defense of the Christian faith and the traditions and principles of Christian chivalry"
Headquarters	1. Malta-Paris: Madrid, Spain[1] 2. Orléans: Château Royal de Boigny-sur-Bionne, France[2] 3. Jerusalem: Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland[3]
Membership	open to Christians by invitation
Official language	1. Malta-Paris: English, French, German, Spanish[4] 2. Orléans: French, English[5]
Grand master	1. Malta-Paris: Francisco de Borbón Graf von Hardenberg[6] 2. Orléans: Prince François d'Orléans 3. Jerusalem: Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma
Spiritual protector	1. Malta-Paris: Patriarch Youssef Absi[6] 2. Orléans: Cardinal Antoine Kambanda 3. Jerusalem: Anglican Bishop Richard Garrard
Secessions	1. Orléans obedience (2004) 2. Jerusalem obedience (2010)
Website	1. Malta-Paris: st-lazarus.net 2. Orléans: orderofsaintlazarus.com 3. Jerusalem: saint-lazare.org

The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Militaris et Hospitalis Sancti Lazari Hierosolymitani) is a Christian order that was statuted in 1910 by a council of Catholics in Paris, France, initially under the protection of Patriarch Cyril VIII Geha of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.^[7] During the 1920s, it expanded its jurisdiction and enrolled members from other countries in Europe and in the Americas. It re-established the office of grand master in 1935, linking the office to members of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon. It assumed an ecumenical dimension during the 1950s to expand its membership to individuals of other Trinitarian Christian denominations in British Commonwealth countries.

Owing to an internal schism in 1969, the order became divided into two competing "obediences", known as the Malta Obedience and the Paris Obedience. In 2008, these rival obediences were reconciled and reunited into a single order once again, led at that time by Carlos Gereda y de Borbón as grand master, and with the spiritual protection of the (now former) Patriarch Gregory III Laham of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. However, during the period of separation, the Paris Obedience had experienced further schisms, with the creation in 1995 of the United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus (led at that time by John Baron von Hoff), and in 2004 of the Orléans Obedience (led at that time by Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans under the protection of Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris). The latter group then experienced a schism in 2010, resulting in the creation of the Jerusalem Obedience (led by Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma).