The Institution of the Ancient and Noble Order of the Knights of St. John International is ascribed to some gallant merchants from the city of Amalfi in the Middle East who in the year 1048 AD founded a hospital in Jerusalem to take care of the pilgrims who visited the Holy Land. The hospital was erected near the place where Our Lord Jesus Christ fell the second time on His way to Calvary, carrying the ignominious cross. The Hospital was placed under the patronage of St. John the Baptist, the man specially chosen by God to be the herald of the Saviour and to prepare the human race for his coming. The merchants constituted themselves into the Order of Knights of St. John Hospitallers, whose first leader was Master Gerald. They nursed the wounded pilgrims most tenderly and cared for the sick and needy as well.
Their charitable works attracted the first ruler of Jerusalem, King Geoffrey when the King visited the Hospital, he was so struck with the efficient manner in which the establishment was managed by Grand Master Gerald that he immediately endowed the Order with memorial rights. As the crusaders returned to the countries, they established similar hospitals throughout Europe to propagate the ideals of the Order. The properties which they acquired facilitated their charitable works. When Grand Master Gerald died in 1118, Master Raymond du Puy succeeded him and continued with the good works by using the wealth accumulated to establish more hospitals and infirmaries which were managed by communities of Hospitallers.
Grand Master Raymond, however, proposed material changes in the constitution of the Order, the most important of which was the requirement that members bore arms for the defend of the church. The merchants received the approval of the then King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and from that time onwards the Order of St. John Hospitallers was permanently established on a military basis. Large donations made it possible to pay for armed escorts who defended the movement of pilgrims. These escorts later became an army of Knights recruited from among the crusaders. In this way the Knights of St. John became military, but it still retained its original character of caring for the sick, the poor and the needy.
