Patent of Authority
The Religious and Military Order
of Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
The Patent was completely hand-lettered by the Monastery's Iconographer, Br. Simeon, and then gold-leafed.
Information Regarding the Foundation Charter
The RMOKHSJ is founded on a Charter issued on March 10, 1982 by the late Oriental Orthodox Abbot-Bishop +George, Abbot of Holy Protection Orthodox Monastery, whose status as a major Orthodox prelate was acknowledged in 1985 by His Holiness Pope Shenouda of the Coptic Orthodox Church when His Grace +George was invited by Pope Shenouda to visit him at the Papal Palace in Alexandria, Egypt. While on that official visit, Pope Shenouda invited Abbot-Bishop +George to co-consecrate with him the Holy Oils to be used in the world-wide Coptic Church. This consecration of the Oils occurs once every 100 years. Prior to that time and to this very day, no Bishop had ever been invited to co-consecrate with the Coptic Pope the sacred oils, yet Bishop +George was so invited and so honored. From the spiritual foundation of this honored Prelate does the RMOKHSJ take its Patent and its goals. Abbots of Orthdox monasteries who are also bishops are acknowledged in Orthodox practice as princes of the Church and the highest of prelates (just beneath that of pope), and upon this Orthodox authority did Abbot-Bishop +George in perpetuity establish The Religious and Military Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and appoint (ad vitam) the Count Palatine of Maxalla as the Sovereign Grand Master. The RMOKHSJ was authorized by Abbot-Bishop +George to be a religious Order of Chivalry that would practice and promote spiritual discipline and that would confer honor on the worthy, and it has adhered to these goals. Each of its Knights receives the Order's breviary with instructions for establishing and maintaining a home Oratory.
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