Bearers of the Cross

On 25 March 2020 the custodians of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem closed the building’s doors indefinitely, thus preventing pilgrims from worshipping at the sacred sites contained within for the first time in hundreds of years. The experience of being unable to visit the church in person would have been familiar to... Read more »

by Justin Bailey This post was originally published on the blog for the Museum of the Order of St John, available here.   One of the best things about working in a small museum with a small team is the variety of my role. As the Museum’s office assistant I organise guided tours and look... Read more »

by Matthieu Isbell Matthieu Isbell is an undergraduate student of Ancient and Medieval History and Culture at Trinity College Dublin, entering his final academic year. He has an especial interest in the Crusades. He has been volunteering at the Museum of the Order St John over the summer, researching and writing about kings of Latin... Read more »

Katie Gibbs is in her third year of studying history at Queen Mary University of London. She’s pretty confident that coins and clocks and what the church was like 800 years ago are things everyone should be interested in. On 1 May 1191, en route to the Holy Land on the Third Crusade, Richard I... Read more »

Jack Hanson is an undergraduate at Queen Mary University of London. He first became interested in the Crusades during his A-levels. He decided to write this essay on the coins of Tancred, as the Museum of the Order of St John has an excellent collection. He has also been working with the Museum to catalogue... Read more »

In the latest guest essay for the Bearers of the Cross project blog, Dr Mike Horswell (Royal Holloway, University of London) explores the history and material culture of the Order of St John’s 1926 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the morning of 4 March 1926 over a hundred men and women – many members of the Order... Read more »

This summer Matthieu Isbell spent a month at the Museum of the Order of St John volunteering with two important projects. One, to collate and catalogue some of the many thousands of very important Order of St John nomination forms, and another, which Matthieu discusses here.   Why did you want to volunteer with the... Read more »

by Matthieu Isbell Matthieu Isbell is an undergraduate student of Ancient and Medieval History and Culture at Trinity College Dublin, entering his final academic year. He has an especial interest in the Crusades. He has been volunteering at the Museum of the Order St John over the summer, researching and writing about kings of Latin... Read more »

by Matthieu Isbell Matthieu Isbell is an undergraduate student of Ancient and Medieval History and Culture at Trinity College Dublin, entering his final academic year. He has an especial interest in the Crusades. He has been volunteering at the Museum of the Order St John over the summer, researching and writing about kings of Latin... Read more »

In the second guest essay for the Bearers of the Cross project blog, Dr Kevin Lewis (University of Oxford) presents an overview of the history of the county of Tripoli. The county was one of four ‘crusader states’ established in the Near East in the wake of the First Crusade, and was the source for many of the coins now held within... Read more »