page_title: Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
section_title: Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572)
hierarchical_section_title: Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus / History / Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572)
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Carlo Alberto nelle vesti di Gran Maestro dell'Ordine del Mauriziano
context_page_description: The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood bestowed by the House of Savoy, founded in 1572 by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, through amalgamation approved by Pope Gregory XIII of the Order of Saint Maurice, founded in 1434, with the medieval Order of Saint Lazarus, founded circa 1119, considered its sole legitimate successor. The Grand Master is Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, since 1983.
  The order was formerly awarded by the Kingdom of Italy with the heads of the House of Savoy as the Kings of Italy. Originally a chivalric order of noble nature, it was restricted to subjects of noble families with proofs of at least eight noble great-grandparents. The order's military and noble nature was and is still combined with a Roman Catholic character.
  After the abolition of the monarchy and the foundation of the Italian Republic in 1946, the legacy of the order is maintained by the pretenders of the House of Savoy and the Italian throne in exile.
  The order is estimated to include about 2,000 members around the world.
context_section_description: In 1572, Pope Gregory XIII united the Order of Saint Lazarus in perpetuity with the Crown of Savoy. Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, merged it with the Savoyan Order of Saint Maurice, and thenceforth the title of Grand Master of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus was hereditary in that house. The pope gave him authority over the vacant commanderies everywhere, except in the states of the King of Spain, which included the greater part of Italy. In England and Germany, these commanderies were suppressed by the Protestant reformation.
  The new organisation was charged to defend the Holy See as well as continue to assist lepers. The war galleys of the order fought against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary pirates. When leprosy again broke out, the order founded a hospital in Aosta in 1773.
caption: King Charles Albert of Sardinia in ceremonial robe.
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