Servus pauperum Christi: the Hospitallers' Services to Pilgrims in the Latin East, XI-XIII Centuries.

Two major features characterized the religious revival of the eleventh century: a growth in pilgrimage to holy places and a new emphasis on apostolic and evangelical activity. The combination of the two lead to the creation of one of the most original religious institutions in the East: The Hospital of St. John, established some time before 1071 as a hospice for poor and sick pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. This paper analyses its origins and it activities as an international order established for the service of pilgrims and the poor in the Latin East from the XIth to the XIIIth centuries.