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Emperor Constantine I ordered in about 325/326 that the site be uncovered, and instructed Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site. Pilgrim of Bordeaux reports in 333: "There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica, that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty" (page 594). Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery [2] (that was repeated later by Sozomen and by Theodoret) that emphasizes the role played in the excavations and construction by Constantine's mother Saint Helena, to whom is also credited the rediscovery of the True Cross. Helena had been directed by her son to build churches upon sites which commemorated the life of Jesus Christ, so the Church of the Holy Sepulchre commemorated the end of the life of Jesus, just as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (also founded by Constantine and Helena) commemorated its beginning. The Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre (The Tomb of Christ) with the dome of the rotunda visible above.Constantine's church was built beside the excavated hill of the Crucifixion, and was actually three connected churches built over the three different holy sites, including a great basilica (the Martyrium visited by the nun Egeria in the 380s), an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico) built around the traditional Rock of Calvary, and a rotunda, called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), which contained the remains of the cave that Helena and Macarius had identified as the burial site of Jesus. The surrounding rock was cut away, and the Tomb was encased in a structure called the K??ß??????? (Kouvouklion; Greek: small compartment) or Edicule (Latin: aediculum, small building) in the center of the rotunda. The dome of the rotunda was completed by the end of the 4th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre
THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER OF JERUSALEM by Guy Stair Sainty Excerpts of the page Gennes (Op. cit.) records eighty-four documents listing at least one but often several knights invested as "knights of the Holy Sepulcher" at the Tomb between 1336 and 1498. Analyzing the number he lists twenty nominations in the fourteenth century, of whom four were German, four French and five from the Netherlands; by the first half of the fifteenth century of the one hundred and thirty nominations of which there are surviving records, ninety-seven were German and of the five hundred and three of the second half of the century, three hundred and eighty-five were German. While this may indicates that knighthood of the Holy Sepulcher was most sought after by German knights, the figures may have been distorted because more German documentary records have survived. In some German families several members made pilgrimages and were accorded knighthood at the Tomb not least because it eliminated the obligation to seek this honor from the candidate's own feudal superior. [14] One family produced no less than eight knights, beginning with Heinrich von Ketzel (died 1433) who was invested in 1389 and ending with Michel von Ketzel in 1503. [15] A painting of the arms of the Ketzel knights now in the German National Museum in Nuremberg illustrates a figure of each knight kneeling by his Arms with an illustration of the Jerusalem Cross, among their other achievements, above. Heinrich's stone tombstone, [16] like the painting, not only includes the Jerusalem Cross, but also the Wheel of Saint Catherine, indicating that he had received that knighthood as well. ... There is no record of any further attempt to maintain a military Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Spain after this date, although the Cross was certainly conceded to Spaniards by the Guardian of the Holy Places and continued to be worn. It was not until 1892 that the "Noble Chapters of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Madrid and Barcelona" were constituted and, in 1905, King Alfonso XIII accepted the title of "Grand Bailiff of Honour and Protector of the Order". Both the King and his brother-in-law, Prince and Infant Don Carlos of Bourbon-Sicily, were given the Collar of the Order with the special badge that is worn only by the Spanish knights. Today the two Spanish Lieutenancies alone in the Order have maintained a "noble" character, requiring proof of paternal nobility for all its members. King Juan Carlos of Spain has been awarded the Collar of the Order, as was his late father, the Count of Barcelona, and both the Prince of the Asturias and the next senior male of the Royal House of Spain, the Infant Carlos of Bourbon-Sicily, Duke of Calabria have received the Grand Cross. .. By the Brief Venerabilis frater of August 3rd, 1888, Pope Leo XIII authorized the concession of the cross in three classes to ladies who have served the church with particular merit - this became the first Order under direct Papal supervision which could be conceded to ladies. In a communication published in the Osservatore Romano on March 14, 1906, the Holy Sepulcher was included as the fifth Papal Order after Saint Sylvester with the provision that the Pope reserved to himself and the Cardinal Grand Chancellor of Equestrian Orders (a post now merged with that of Secretary of State) supreme authority, while according the Latin Patriarch the title of Grand Master and the right to award the Order. By a further reform the following year in the brief Quam multa (May 3, 1907), Saint Pius X took the title of Sovereign Head and Grand Master of the Sacred Military Order himself, appointing the Patriarch pro tempore Lieutenant of the Grand Magistery with the right to nominate knights. King Alfonso XIII of Spain was appointed Grand Bailiff and Protector of the Order in Spain at the same time. The grades of Grand Cross, Commander and Knight had been instituted in 1868, while a Grand Cordon in the form of a Collar was granted to the heads and members of several Royal Houses, including the German Emperor William II, the Archdukes Eugene (himself Grand Master of the Teutonic Order) and Josef-August of Austria, King Leopold II and the future King Albert of the Belgians, Ferdinand Pius Duke of Calabria and his wife, the King of Portugal and the Emperor of Ethiopia. The Order was divided into eleven national Lieutenancies, three Spanish and eight Italian; today there are Lieutenancies in most Catholic and many non-Catholic countries (including Great Britain) with ten in the United States (having more than seven thousand members). The highest class of the Order is that of Knight of the Collar, of whom there may be a maximum of twelve; the second class, for knights, is divided into the grades of Grand Cross, Grand Officer (or Commander with Star), Commander and Knight; the third class is divided into the grades of Dame Grand Cross, Dame Commander with Star, Dame Commander and Dame. [38] The previous Grand Master, Cardinal Caprio, was appointed in succession to Cardinal de Furstenberg on December 4, 1989, he resigned at the end of 1995. His successor, nominated by the Holy Father in January 1996 is H.Em. Carlo, Cardinal Furno. The headquarters of the Order remain in the Palazzo San Onofrio near Saint Peter's Basilica. Today there are close to eighteen thousand members of the Order and the membership represents a loyal and devoted Catholic élite, generous in their support of the Holy See and its institutions, particularly in the Holy Land where it gives substantial aid to the humanitarian and religious projects of the Patriarch. By the Constitution of 1977 the members of the Order must promise to "revive in modern form the spirit and ideals of the Crusaders with the weapons of faith, the Apostolate and Christian charity". The Grand Master may also confer the Order of Merit of the Holy Sepulcher (in three classes) on both Catholics and non-Catholics who have been of particular service to the Order and its works; this is granted in three grades to both gentlemen and ladies: first, second and third class. http://www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/holysep.htm http://www.order-of-the-holy-sepulchre.org/ |
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