The first „Brothers of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem“ (the full name of the Teutonic Order) were laymen. Some German pilgrims had erected a field hospital in 1189 for fellow travelers, and when the founders wanted to return home, Frederick I Barbarossa deployed two officials of his court to continue the hospital. They took monastic vows, recruited more brothers and founded a community. German kings assured the financial support of the hospital.
The community became a knights‘ order in 1198, with the goal of protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land. This meant that in addition to the brothers who cared for the poor and infirm, the order now had members who were knights and others who were priests.
By the 16th century the order was mainly a knightly order for noblemen, including for a while some Protestants, and few priest brothers (these were mosty not from the nobility) remained. Some knights were honorary, i.e. members without monastic vows. Military defense of the faith became the center of the order‘s efforts. The knights served as officers in the imperial army and fought the Turks. However, during the time of the Catholic Reformation, the Teutonic Order also took on the intellectual defense of the faith and the provision for public welfare, founding and running seminaries, providing pastoral care for Catholics traveling or living in Protestant territories, building – or rebuilding after wars – hospitals, schools, bridges, and mills.
Napoleon abolished the order in the territories he conquered, but it was reinstated in 1834 by Austrian emperor Francis I as an independent monastic institute. The female branch of the order was refounded, the knights began to dedicate themselves to the care of wounded soldiers. The knightly aspect of the order came to an end with the demise of the Austrian monarchy in 1917/18. Since 1923 it is solely an order of priests, monastic lay brothers, and sisters. Hitler abolished it again, and it was reinstated in 1945. Today the Teutonic Order priests are mostly pastors of parishes, the sisters serve in health care, education, care of the aged, etc.
(source of information:
www.deutscher-orden.de)
