During the Crusades, a military order of Crusader knights was founded in the name of Saint Lazarus, becoming known as the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus, or the Lazarists. According to the Order's official website, it had its origins at a lepers' hospice in Jerusalem in 1120. Such hospitals, of course, were associated with Saint Lazarus due to the conflation of Lazarus of Bethany with the allegorical Lazarus the beggar from Jesus' parable. The order's original purpose was to protect the lepers' hospice, before their purview was expanded to the entire Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, however, the lepers' hospice was destroyed, and the Lazarists began protecting pilgrims on their way to and from the Holy Land, as other military orders such as the Knights Templar did.
Today, the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem exists in a modern form established in 1910. Rather than literally being a military order of knights as the medieval version was, the modern Order of Saint Lazarus is a fraternal order whose mission statement is "to help the poor, the sick, the most in need and those who are not able to care for themselves." Unlike the medieval version, however, the modern Order of Saint Lazarus is not endorsed by the Catholic Church.
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