"Order of St. Lazarus?" Topic

Hello everyone,

Personally I think it is a big mistake to represent their knights in white with a green cross because (the green cross only appeared in the 16th century and that the Christian states in the East had disappeared a long time ago) and also because than
of the rules of the Templars and Hospitallers, claimed that a knight suffering from leprosy had to leave the Order and join the brothers of St Lazarus, who wore a black coat without insignia…

What were the colors of the coats of the knights and sergeants of this order, or how their outfits have evolve? Thank you.

In fact according to the article "The Heraldry and Development of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem" at link the first firm evidence for the green cross is a regulation of 1314, which prescribed that brother knights should wear "a square green cross on their habits, mantle and harness". At this point it was a plain Latin cross, not the eight-pointed Maltese cross used later, which does indeed emerge in the 16th century.

This is not direct evidence for the Crusades period but personally I would use a plain green Latin cross and assume that the 1314 regulation may merely have been enforcing existing practice.

But, that green just looks SOooo good on the gaming table! That's exactly why I bought the decals…

There seems to be some confusion about when the green cross was adopted by the Order of St Lazarus, some internet articles confidently state that it was not adopted until the 16th Century. However Savona-Ventura and Michael W Ross clearly allude to the fact that The Knights of St Lazarus at least were using the green cross on habit mantle and harness from 1314 at the latest – prescribed by Siegried of Flatte, Commander of Seedorf in that year.* Master Generals of the order were probably wearing some form of cross on their cloaks a little earlier at least – Thomas de Sainville (1277-1312) is depicted on his tomb originally at Boigny with a couped cross on his cloak at the left shoulder.

*The Heraldry and Development of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, The Journal of the Heraldry Society of Scotland No.36 Summer 2013.

But for the 12th century at least, which is the period of interest to me, the rules of both templars and hospitallers stated that a knight who taught leprosy must leave the Order and join the brethren of St Lazarus, who wore a black habit without insignia and it must have been the same for their sergeants.
In my opinion the knights and the sergeants of St Lazarus carried a simple surcoat (but rather sleeveless, not the "cappa clausa" of the Knights and sergeants Hospitallers…) like those of the Knights Templar, but black and without cross or badges of any kind.

And as everyone knows, sergeants are not as heavily equipped as knights, including in the military orders of the Knights of Christ.

To finish and to confirm what I think about this topic, I contacted the Chancellor of the Grand Priory of France, in the person of Chevalier Daniel Blanchet Magon de la Lande.

I hope he has the answer, or that he will put me in touch with an enthusiast or a specialist of his order for these kinds of questions.

While waiting for this miraculous answer, we should be interested in the number of combatants of this order, what battles with how many knights, sergeants and turcopoles?