Blessed Gérard
Founder of the Order of Malta
Feast: 13 October
It is not certain whether Gerard came from present-day Italy or France. He went to Jerusalem and there, towards the end of the eleventh century, he established a hospice for pilgrims and the sick next to the Church of St. John. To maintain this work he founded a religious community, which he governed in accordance with the Rule of St. Augustine. On 15 February 1113, Pope Paschal II solemnly approved the new Order, which had been established even before the first Crusaders went to Palestine to recover the Holy Sepulchre. The Pope's Letters Apostolic, Piae postulatio voluntatis, were addressed to 'Gerard, Founder and Warden of the hospice at Jerusalem and to his lawful successors.' Gerard died at Jerusalem in 1120. This is also the day on which, in 1993, the Grandmaster decreed the Restoration of the Grand Priory of England.
Prayer:
O God, who exalted blessed Gérard because of his care for the poor and the sick, and through him founded in Jerusalem the Order of St. John the Baptist, give us the grace of seeing, as he did, the image of your Son in our brothers and sisters. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit One God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(From: The Missal with readings of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes, & of Malta, London 1997)
Here we must write a new chapter of the Golden Legend. May we be able to give to this tale the charm and flavour of Voragine!
To begin from the very inception of the Order, we must salute the founder, the Blessed Gerard.
His origins are uncertain and in dispute by historians; his patronymic is not even known with certainty. Did Gherard, or Girard, or Geraud, or Gerald, or Gerard Tenque or Tunc belong to the illustrious family of Saint-Didier or was he a simple artisan? Was he hermit of Saint Augustine or an oblate of Saint Mary Latin? Was he born at Martigues in Provence or at Sasso di Scalo, near Amalfi?
Whatever may be the truth, it was at Manosque, without any doubt whatever, that his relics remained from 1283 - that is, from the capture of Acre by the Mohammedans and the rallying of the Hospitallers on Cyprus - until the French Revolution destroyed them. Yet, a humerus and a vertebra of the holy body were saved and kept in the church of Martigues. After the "separation" and inventories, it has been possible to see these remains in a closet of that city's town hall. That fact would lead us to believe that the Blessed Gerard is from Provence. Cut can he be from Amalfi? Who can say?
Before the First Crusade, he was already in charge of the Hospital of Jerusalem then served, at least spiritually by Benedictine monks - a fact which might lead us to think that he was indeed an oblate.
When the crusaders besieged the Holy City, Gerard used his influence to facilitate their victory. Legend even insists that he threw food to them over the walls and that, denounced, he was led before the Mohammedan governor and commanded to show what was in the bag he carried; only stones were found in it. But his rapacious adversaries suspected that he had a treasure hidden in his Hospital. He was imprisoned, questioned, and tortured. It was there that the crusaders delivered him from his chains, after they had taken the city's last defences by storm. Gerard's toes and fingers had been atrociously burned.
Free, and deep in the favour of King Godefroy de Bouillon because of the services rendered during the siege, Gerard, having come back to the Hospital, re-organized it and accepted all the sick and wounded Christians brought to him. He took care of them diligently and charitably. Certain patients of his, touched by his example, stayed with him as male nurses; others returned to their countries and gave him liberal donations.
During these events, Gerard separated from the Benedictines, who could not reconcile their rule with the new state of things: the development of the Hospital and the influx of lay vocations. Resigning themselves, we hope, the good monks built a church not far from Saint John. Gerard added to the Hospital a house in which to lodge his brothers. He adopted for them the Rule of Saint Augustine, which was flexible enough to be adapted to their special mission. Two popes addressed Bulls to him, encouraging his enterprise and blessing it.
He died simply, on September 3, 1120.
We find in him the typical example of those active mystics who are not men with great projects and plans laid far in advance, but who can meet the challenges of the moment and at times foresee them. An event as abnormal in its consequences as a crusade does not disturb Gerard. He adjusts himself to it as best he can and at his own risk, according to his conscience; then he returns to his work, moulding it to the new necessities. Does it require a painful decision, a separation, a complete re-organization? The act is accomplished and history does not state whether it was without clash and pain. But the basic aim is reached: the relief of bodies and well-being of souls; the goal is attained thanks to the new group of those religious, of a special type, unknown up to that time and answering in an original and military way the appeal of divine charity. That creation is a perfecting and not a destruction of the work already existing before him. It denotes the talented flexibility of Gerard's spirit as shell as his great humility.
All men of the Middle Ages venerated his virtues, and gave him the title of Blessed, which in the language of that period was equivalent to canonization. That is how he has always been considered among the knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, his children. That is how we pray to him and invoke him, in conformity with the decisions of Benedict XIV.
(From: Ducaud-Bourget, Msgr. François: The Spiritual Heritage of The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Vatican 1958)
Links:
Blessed Gérard · Picture Gallery
Fresco in the chapel of the Grand Magistry of the Order of Malta in Rome
Fresco in the Grand Masters' Palace in Valletta / Malta:
Blessed Gérard was caught red-handed throwing bread over the city walls to the Christians.
Arrested and dragged before the city's custodian the loaves had turned into stones.
Therefore Blessed Gérard is often depicted chained with bread in the hand.
Fresco by Mattia Preti at St. John's Co-Cathredral, La Valletta / Malta
Blessed Gérard in the Hospital of Jerusalem: Oil painting by Mattia Preti at the Oratory of St. John's Co-Cathedral
The Bread Miracle of Blessed Gérard: Oil painting by Mattia Preti at the Oratory of St. John's Co-Cathedral
Blessed Gérard, Fine Arts Museum, Valletta, Malta
Sr. John the Baptist, Blessed Gérard and Blessed Raymond
picture at Ciola (Terra del Sole) (Forli) in Italy
Icons
Blessed Gérard, verre églomisé picture, Blessed Gérard's Care Centre & Hospice, Mandeni, South Africa
Stamp from Monaco from the year 1999 depicting Blessed Gérard
Engraving by Giacomo Bosio
Stamp (and detail thereof) of the Order of Malta from 1972
Mural at Blessed Gérard's Care Centre & Hospice, Mandeni, South Africa
Painting at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, La Valletta, Malta
Oil painting on canvas at the Collegio in Mdina, Malta
Blessed Gérard, Stained Glass Window by Guido van Bessouw at Blessed Gérard's Care Centre & Hospice in Mandeni, South Africa
Stained glass window, Church of the Bohemian Grand Priory of the SMOM, Prague, Czech Republic
Stained glass window (unknown location)
Bronze statue in Ehreshoven / Germany
Details of the Our-Lady-of-Philerme-Icon at Ehreshoven / Germany
Malteser Hospice, Dortmund/Germany
Statue from Mußbach, now in the Cathedral Treasury of Speyer/Germany
Oil painting in the chapter room of the Villa Malta on the Aventine in Rome
Oil on canvas painting by Antoine de Favray (706-1792) at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta / Malta:
Blessed Gérard welcoming Godfrey of Bouillon at the Hospital of Jerusalem
and a stamp of thr Republic of Malta depicting this painting
Oil on canvas painting by Rodolfo Papa 2002
Blessed Gérard, Stained glass window, St. Jean de Malte, Aix-en-Provence, France
Stained glass window by Guido Marussig at the Niguarda Hospital Milan / Italy
Gerard is depicted with a purple cassock, which bears the white cross of the later knights, in the act of offering bread and drinks to the pilgrims. Against the backdrop of a bright emerald green lawn, appears the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Crusades with the powerful buttresses and the great dome.
Engraving from the private collection of the deceased Valentin Graf von Ballestrem from Straubing / Germany
The Blessed Gérard, assisted by two attendants, kneels before a female allegory of the Order while the Virgin and Child appear in a mandorla to impart their blessing.
Miniature "The Consecration of Blessed Gérard" in Book I of the Choral Books with the Arms of Grandmaster Philippe Villiers de L'Isle Adam, Valletta, Museum of the Conventual Church of St. John
Detail of a bronze statue by Pierre Puget at Manosque / France
Sketch for the above statue by Pierre Puget at Manosque / France
Silver Medal by Pierre Puget at Manosque / France
Statue sculpted in 1880-1890 by Bertrand Nazaire, a local artist, at St. Genest Church in the Jonquières suburb of Martigues / France
Fresco at the Grand Magistry of the Order of Malta in Rome
Believe it or not ...
Members' Medal of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard
Gypsum model for the above plaque at the Grand Magistry of the Order of Malta in Rome.
William Caoursin: Engraving depicting the construction of the Hospital in Jerusalem supervised by Blessed Gérard
Fresco at the Cathedral of Amalfi, Italy
Relief and Sculpture at Scala, Italy
Statue in the Hodegetria Church in Marina di Caronia, Sicily / Italy
Relics of Blessed Gérard
More about the relics of Blessed Gérard: The grave and relics of Blessed Gérard
Relics of Blessed Gérard in Martigues / France
LES MARTEGAUX ETAIENT A SAINT MAXIMIN AVEC LES RELIQUES DU BIENHEUREUX GERARD TENQUE
Relics of Blessed Gérard in the Chapel of the Magistral Palace of the SMOM in Rome
Relic of Blessed Gérard at Blessed Gérard's Care Centre in Mandeni, South Africa
The skull of Blessed Gérard, sent to Malta at the request of Grandmaster Frà Emmanuel Pinto de Fonseca from Manosque in the Provence, France, in 1749;
transferred from St. John's Co-Cathedral to the Hospitaller Nunnery of St. Ursula in Valletta in 1865
Cranium relic in London / United Kingdom
Reliquary at Pisa / Italy
Reliquaries in Sicily / Italy
Blessed Gérard's Coat of Arms
(above: "french" version - below: "italian" version)
