Blood of Jesus Christ, or Blood of Christ, was a military order instituted at

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

Vincenzo I Gonzaga Vincenzo Ι Gonzaga (21 September 1562 – 9 February 1612) was ruler of the Duchy of Mantua and the Duchy of Montferrat from 1587 to 1612. Biography Vincenzo was the only son of Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and Archduchess Eleanor of Aust ...

Duke of Mantua During its history as independent entity, Mantua had different rulers who governed on the city and the lands of Mantua from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. From 970 to 1115, the Counts of Mantua were members of the House of Canos ...

, approved on 25 May 1608 by Pope

Paul V Pope Paul V ( la, Paulus V; it, Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death in January 1621. In 1611, he honored ...

. The

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. M ...

of the order was ''Domine probasti me'', or that ''Nihil hoc triste recepto''. Jean Hermant speaks of the order and observes that it took its name from some drops of the blood of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

, said to have been preserved in the cathedral church of Mantua. Their number was restricted to twenty besides the Grand Master; the office whereof was attached to himself and his successors. There was also a congregation of

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, called Blood of Jesus Christ, reformed from the

Cistercians The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

History

Vincenzo I Gonzaga was a member of the chivalry equestrian order of Toson d'Oro. He had been given the honour of being part of this order of knighthood by the Grand Master Philip the second, King of Spain in 1589 after paying the enormous amount of 300,000 golden escudos. Not yet happy with that, he decided to fund his own equestrian order named "of the Redeemer" or " del Preziosissimo Lateral Sangue di Cristo", after the relic of the Holy Blood of Christ kept in Mantua. He took this decision, during the luxurious celebrations organized during the wedding of his first born son and heir and the Princess of the Savoy family. That new equestrian order was to represent the spirit of brotherhood. Its distinctive feature was a collar with golden medals chained one to the other. The medals showed two symbols alternatively: one medal showed the device of the melting pot surrounded by flames, where some golden bars were being melted while the other was decorated by the letters D.P., initial letters of the motto DOMINE PROBASTI ET COGNOVISTI ME taken from Psalm 138. Jesus of Nazareth. There was a pendant hanging from the collar, too. It was a golden medal showing two angels holding a reliquary with three drops of Christ's blood in it. The medal had the motto NIHIL ISTO TRISTE RECEPTO on it. The members of this equestrian order used to wear vivid red outfits, wide in shape and long to the ground. The dress was then topped by a coat in the same colour with little flames scattered all over thus making their attire very remarkable and striking. Today the head of the House of Gonzaga-Vescovato is Prince Maurizio Ferrante Gonzaga Vescovato and he is Grand Master of the Order of the Redeemer. The House of Gonzaga-Vescovato is the only branch of the Gonzaga dynasty that is still extant.

Insignia

Its distinctive feature was a collar with golden medals chained one to the other. The medals showed two symbols alternatively: one medal showed the device of the melting pot surrounded by flames where some golden bars were being melted, while the other was decorated by the letters D.P., initial letters of the motto DOMINE PROBASTI ET COGNOVISTI ME taken from Psalm 138. The badge of the Order, made of gold, hanged from this collar and showed two angels holding a reliquary with three drops of Christ's blood in it. The medal had the motto NIHIL ISTO TRISTE RECEPTO on it. The members of this equestrian order used to wear vivid red outfits, wide in shape and long to the ground. The dress was then topped by a coat in the same colour with little flames scattered all lover thus making their attire very remarkable and striking.

References

List of Knight of Order
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blood Of Jesus Christ (Military Order) Cistercian Order Military orders (monastic society) History of Catholicism in Italy