The Grand Master of the Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910) is the leader of a fraternal order claiming legacy and contingency to the medieval Catholic military order, the Order of Saint Lazarus.
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It claims continuity by assertion that during the period 1814 to 1841, the order was under the direction of the Council of Officers with King Louis XVIII (1814-1824) and Charles X (1824-1831) as Protectors of the joint Orders, and was then passed on, evolving into today's list of Grand Masters.
Council of Officers?
The Order lost its Royal Protection in 1831 but, according to some pretensions, continued to function under the direction of the Council of Officers.
Modern Order of Saint Lazarus
The period following the loss of Temporal Protection of the French Royal Family in 1831 until 1910 is controversial. Some claim that the order did not survive, whereas some claim the period is at best shrouded in mystery since no contemporary documentation seems to have survived.
Modern tradition of the Order of Saint Lazarus (statuted 1910) maintains that, after 1841, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchs assumed the leadership of the Order, as Hospitaller Nobles of St. Lazarus.