The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star or Military Order of the Crusaders of the Red Star is a religious Order originating from Bohemia, devoted mainly to offering medical care. Its members use the postnominal initials of O.M.C.R.S. Throughout its history it was accustomed to the use of arms, a custom which was confirmed in 1292 by an ambassador of Pope Nicholas IV. The grand master is still invested with a sword at his induction into office, and the congregation has been recognized as a military order by Popes Clement X and Innocent XII, as well as by several Holy Roman Emperors.
The Order, as a distinct entity, can trace its origin to 1233 in a fraternity of Franciscan tertiaries attached to a hospital at Prague under a community of Poor Clares, established by St. Agnes of Bohemia, making it the only male religious Order founded by a woman and the only Bohemian-founded Order. It was inspired by the nursing military Orders, such as the Knights Hospitaller. In 1235 the hospital was richly endowed by Agnes, then still Queen of Bohemia, with property formerly belonging to the Teutonic Knights, a gift confirmed by Pope Gregory IX (18 May 1236), who stipulated that the revenues should be divided with the Poor Clare monastery.
Within two decades after their foundation the care of souls had become as important as their hospital work, so quickly had the majority of lay brothers been replaced by priests. Numerous churches were entrusted to them in all parts of Bohemia, particularly in the western parts, where they formed a bulwark for Roman Catholic dogma against the spread of the teachings of Jan Hus in that region. In the Hussite Wars, the Taborites killed the pastor of St. Stephen's at Prague, and the Hussites destroyed the motherhouse. This brought the Order almost to the point of dissolution, but it recovered sufficiently to offer strenuous resistance to the advance of the teachings of the Protestant Reformation.
In the 1910s, besides the motherhouse at Prague, there were about 26 incorporated parishes, and 85 professed members, several of whom are engaged in gymnasia and the University of Prague. There were benefices at Hradište (now part of Znojmo), Vienna (where the Order has been established since the 13th century and still remains in possession of the Kreuzherren Palais), Cheb, Most and other towns, especially in western Bohemia. Dobrichovice Chateau (
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Saint John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (Czech: Jan Nepomucký; German: Johannes Nepomuk; Latin: Ioannes Nepomucenus (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393) is the saint of Bohemia (Czech Republic), who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods and drowning.
The general attributes of sculpture of St. John of Nepomuk: priestly dress, halo of five stars, the Cross, finger over the lips.
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