After the Crusades, when the armies began returning home, many of the noble knights decided to join forces with the Order of St. John in gratitude for the care they and their comrades had received. This marked the beginning of change in the structure of the Order from purely religious, to both religious and secular. These new knights were trained as religious nurses, and fighting monks! With the addition of knights from great and noble Euporean families, came money and political influence. Special privileges were granted by various Popes and monarchs until the Order was finally granted sovereignty by the Emperor Charles V in the sixteenth century. By the early seventeenth century, virtually every major hospital and hospice in the Western World was operated or influenced by the Order of St. John. In fact, the first hospital and nurse's training program in America was established and maintained by the Order in 1637. On the secular side of things, this same Order maintained the most powerful navy in the world during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were known by then as the Knights of Malta for the sovereign territory they had been given by Charles V on the agreement that they would keep the Moslem Moors out of Europe. This they did. Because Napoleon Bonaparte both feared the influence, and coveted the possessions of the Order, he attacked the island of Malta and demanded the capitulation of the Order's Prince Grand Master in 1797.

Not wishing to shed Christian blood, the Order left Malta, sought and was granted the protection of the Russian Czar Paul I. At this same time, many of the Knights decided to return to their native homelands, until the Napoleon problem was resolved, and establish their own indigenous Priories of the Order. Today for example, the Knights who returned to England are Anglican, and known as the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John; The Italians became the Roman Catholic Sovereign and Military Order of Malta; the Germans became the Lutheran Johanniter Orden, while those who remained with the Order in St. Petersburg Russia, maintained the name "Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem", being Orthodox and ecumenical.

These different branches today still operate hospital, hospice, emergency, and convalescent care facilities throughout the world. Our ecumenical branch of the Order currently supports blood banks and eye clinics in Canada, Malta, and India. We also maintain field hospital and children's surgical facilities in India and Pakistan. Convalescent and hospice programs are maintained in England, (the new headquarters of our Order), Sweden and the U.S.A.

There are two basic differences between today's Order and the one of centuries gone by. The first difference is in the way we define nobility. It is no longer defined according to a person's station in life, or birthright. The nobility required for knighthood today, is nobility of character. We believe that a man's words, deeds, and spiritual life demonstrate his worth. This first change has directly affected the second. Instead of looking to a rich and powerful nobleman to give half his fortune upon entering the Order to sustain the work, we now look to the concerned members of the world's society for their charitable contributions.

Whether today's Knights are princes, dukes, or lesser nobles; working men, business men, doctors, lawyers or other professionals; their goal for the Order is still the same: to provide for the hungry, welcome the stranger, care for the sick, and visit the prisoners, even the least members of God's Kingdom, according to the Gospel message of our Lord as found in Matthew chapter 25, verses 34 through 46.

Recently, our attention has been directed toward hospice care in the Kern River Valley of California, and on Vashon Island near Seattle Washington. These are resort and retirement areas with many low income families, where we are operating elderly and invalid care programs for the terminally ill.The first phase of this work began in the Kern Valley in 1987 involving the refurbishing of equipment donated for hospice, and performing in-home hospice care followed up by bereavement care for the families. We have teams of healthcare professionals, clergy and lay volunteers to help families during what can be an extremely difficult time. It is our desire to organize and or establish indigenous programs of this type in as many communities as have a need, both at home and abroad.