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Grand Priory of the Maltese Islands
The
Military and
Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem
Grand Master: The
Most Honourable Don Carlos Gereda de Borbon, Marquis de Almazan
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 About the Order
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THE
MILITARY AND HOSPITALLER ORDER OF
SAINT LAZARUS OF JERUSALEM
Governance
GRAND
MASTER
H.E. Don Carlos Gereda de Borbon
Marquis
de Almazan, 49th Grand Master
 The Military &
Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem has opened a new page in
its history with the election of a new Gramdmaster - its 49th in its
history—in the person of H.E. Don Carlos Gereda de Borbon. A member of
the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family, Don Carlos is related to the
18th century King Philip V of Spain who was past uncle to the both the
42nd and 43rd 18th century Grandmasters of the Order. His appointment
maintains the established tradition of having a close interrelationship
with the Bourbon family. Don Carlos was born in Montevideo, Uruguay
where his parents went to live after the Spanish War. He returned to
Spain at a very early age and was educated in the United Kingdom and
eventually in Spain where he studied Industrial Engineering and
business management. He assumed a career as a commercial development
entrepreneur negotiating all sorts of business with many different
cultures—from the Far East, Central Europe to South America. He is
currently involved in the establishment of a Science Leisure Centre in
Malaga. He was received in the Grand Priory of Spain in 2007. Both Don
Carlos and his spouse Blanche are practising Roman Catholics. His aims
as Grandmaster is to try to attract more young people to the order;
enhance international projects with co-financing; focus more on
international and local leprosy issues; and widen the members’ concepts
of Christian duties to those in need especially in the Holy Land. His
international background and business sense, together with the
experience of the recently restructured Council, should serve as a new
stimulus towards modernising the Order for the overall benefit of those
in need.
SPIRITUAL
PROTECTOR
His
Beatitude Patriarch Gregory III
 For the past 150
years the Patriarchs of the Melkite Catholic Church have served as the
Spiritual Protectors of The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint
Lazarus of Jerusalem. By the grace of God, at the Electoral Synod of
the Melkite Greek Catholic Church held at Rabweh, Lebanon, on November
27-29, 2000, the Most Reverend Archbishop Lutfi Laham, Patriarchal
Vicar of Jerusalem was elected as the new Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Alexandria, Antioch and all the East. The new Patriarch took a new
name, as is the custom. He chose the name of Gregory III to follow
Patriarch Gregory II Youssef, the great champion of Eastern traditions
and of the rights of Patriarchs in the First Vatican Council (1870).
Patriarch
Gregory III was born in Daraya, near Damascus, Syria, in 1933. The
village of Daraya is known traditionally to be the place of the
conversion of St. Paul on his way to Damascus. His Beatitude entered
the Seminary of the Holy Savior of the Basilian Salvatorian Fathers in
the Shoof, Lebanon in 1944. He took his simple religious vows in the
Basilian Salvatorian Order in 1949 and his solemn religious vows in
1954. He received his religious and philosophy education at the Holy
Savior Seminary, Joun, Lebanon. He continued his Theological studies in
Rome where he was ordained priest in 1959. He obtained ta doctorate in
oriental theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. He was
superior of the Holy Savior Major Seminary in1961-1964. In 1962, His
Beatitude founded the magazine "AI-Wahdah -Unity in Faith," the first
ecumenical magazine to be published in the Arabic language. He founded,
in the same year, the "Center for Young Girls" in several Lebanese
villages in East Sidon. In 1966, he co-founded tthe Providence Home, at
Salhiyeh, near Saida, Lebanon, as an orphanage and trade school for
boys. In
1974, he became Administrator of the Patriarchal Vicanate of Jerusalem.
In 1976, in Jerusalem, he founded the "Student Fund" to help needy
students and in 1978 the Family Assistance Fund to help needy families
in the troubled areas of his Diocese. In 1967, he founded at the
Patriarchate the Oriental Library to promulgate the knowledge of
Eastern traditions. He initiated many social projects such as repairing
churches, opening clinics and building popular housing, including a
guest house for pilgrims at the Patriarchal Center in Jerusalem. In 1981, he was
consecrated Archbishop and continued his work as Patriarchal Vicar of
Jerusalem He is well known throughout the Middle East and Europe as an
Ecumenist and Theologian. Appointed by
Patriarch Maximos V Hakim as president of the Patriarchal Liturgical
Commission, he edited "the Anthologion," the prayer book of the Melkite
Greek Catholic Church in four volumes, and 'the Book of the Liturgies,"
a complete and updated compendium of the Divine Liturgy. As Secretary
of the Ecumenical Commission of the Melkite Patriarchate, he has been
very active in the Dialogue between the two Sister Churches, the
Melkite Greek Catholic and the Greek (Antiochian) Orthodox Churches. He
is also a member of the League of the Universities and institutes of
Religious Studies in the Middle East. He was installed as
Patriarch November 29, immediately after his election by 30 Bishops
assembled in special Synod. Present at the installation was His
Beatitude Maximos V Hakim who resigned for reasons of health at 92
years of age.
(from Grand Priory of America Newsletter
December, 2000.)
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