A 14th century Maltese link to an Italian hospitaller order

Abstract

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine the Great [306-337 AD] transformed Rome and the Holy Land into magnets of Christian pilgrimage. The first surviving account of a pilgrim's journey to Jerusalem dates to the year 333 AD; however the Holy Places of Palestine have been visited by pilgrims since the early days of Christianity. The earliest known Palestinian pilgrims were, for the most part, devout souls, many of them clergy or in religious orders. The increasing flow of pilgrims to the various shrines in Europe and the Holy Land required the organisation of hospice services for sick and needy pilgrims throughout the pilgrim routes. One such hospital set up in North Italy along the still uncivilized route between Lucca and Genoa apparently had financial interests in Sicily and the Maltese Islands during the fourteenth century.