The Order of Aubrac was a military order and hospital (''

hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu ( en, hostel of God) was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris ...

'') chartered in the twelfth century. It operated in the Rouergue to protect and care for pilgrims on the Way of Saint James and the '' Via Francigena''.Goyau 1912. The headquarters of the order was the monastery and hospital called the Dômerie d'Aubrac in the town of

Aubrac Aubrac is a small village in the southern Massif Central of France. The name is also applied to the surrounding countryside, which is properly called L'Aubrac in French. The Aubrac region has been a member of the Natura 2000 network since August 20 ...

in the Diocese of Rodez. According to later tradition, it was founded in 1031 by Adalard, viscount of

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

, who was beset by brigands while passing through the County of Rouergue on his way to the shrine of Saint James in Compostela. If this later story is accurate, then the Order of Aubrac is a unique example in the eleventh century of a military order in the style of the later

Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

and

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

.Crawford 2016, p. 178, who cautions that "institutional mythology" often created "pasts of greater antiquity than the facts justified" in the Middle Ages. The Order was chartered in 1120 or 1122Crawford 1993, p. 69. and adopted the

Augustinian rule The Rule of Saint Augustine, written about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The rule, developed ...

with the approval of Bishop Peter of Rodez in 1162. The Order's statutes from that year survive. They were revised several times in the later Middle Ages. The Order included priests, knights, lay brothers, noblewomen and lay sisters. Satellite hospitals, called " commanderies", were established at Bozouls, Milhau,

Najac Najac () is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France. Najac station has rail connections to Toulouse, Figeac and Aurillac. Najac village is set along a ridge above a bend in the river Aveyron. In the earlier part of the last ...

, and

Rodez Rodez ( or ; oc, Rodés, ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of th ...

. Though never large, the

failed in several attempts to annex it and it remained independent and operational until the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, when it disappeared.Walsh 2003, p. 193. Paul Crawford in his 1993 study of military orders, classifies Aubrac as one of the "hospitaller orders which may have had military functions" alongside

Order of Saint James of Altopascio The Order of Saint James of Altopascio ( it, Ordine di San Giacomo d'Altopascio or ''Ordine dei Frati Ospitalieri di San Jacopo''), also called the Knights of the Tau (''Cavalieri del Tau'') or Hospitallers of Saint James, was a military order, per ...

and the Order of Saint Anthony of Vienne, while noting that it is the only one of the three that seems definitely to have had a military status.

Footnotes

References

*Anderson, R. Warren; Hull, Brooks B. 2017
"Religion, Warrior Elites, and Property Rights."
''Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion'', 13, Article 5. *Bom, Myra Miranda. 2012. ''Women in the Military Orders of the Crusades''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. *Brodman, James William. 2009. ''Charity and Religion in Medieval Europe''. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press. *Crawford, Paul F. 1993. ''Militia Christi: A Categorization and Assessment of the Military Orders of the Middle Ages''. MA thesis. University of Wisconsin-Madison. *Crawford, Paul F. 2016. "Gregory VII and the Idea of a Military-Religious Order". In Susan B. Edgington and Helen J. Nicholson (eds.), ''Deeds Done Beyond the Sea: Essays on William of Tyre, Cyprus and the Military Orders Presented to Peter Edbury''. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 171–180. *Goyau, Georges. 1912

''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 22 February 2009 from ''New Advent''. *Jugnot, Gérard. 1978. "Deux fondations augustiniennes en faveur des pèlerins Aubrac et Ronceveaux". In Marie-Humbert Vicaire (ed.), ''Assistance et charité''. Cahier de Fanjeaux, 13. Toulouse: E. Privat, pp. 321–341. *Le Grand, Léon (ed.). 1901
''Status d'hotels-Dieu et de léproseries''.
Paris: Alphonse Picard et fils. *Walsh, Michael. 2003. ''Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom''. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. . {{coord, 44.6219, N, 2.9861, E, source:wikidata, display=title

1162 establishments in Europe 1160s establishments in France Catholic Church in France