Then, as now, a traveller had to pay for his passage in advance. (The term ‘passage money’ was to acquire considerable importance in the later history of the Order of St John.) The hospice seems to have been dedicated to this saint, although exactly which of the Johns is open to debate. Later it was always assumed that the patron saint of the Order was John the Baptist.

The hospice came under Benedictine rule and was administered by Benedictines from Amalfi. It is very likely that Gerard himself was an Italian from this gracious little city, which had at one time during the ninth century shared with Venice and Gaeta all the Italian trade with the East. The development of the compass is said to have reached Europe through Amalfi. Its naval code, the Tavolo Amalfitano, was recognised throughout the Mediterranean until the late sixteenth century. The merchants who set up the hospice in Jerusalem were not being entirely philanthropic. There were practical reasons why shipowners and traders dealing with the East should want to have a rest house in Jerusalem. Not only did they have their own merchants and agents going there, but quite a large part of their business was the transport of pilgrims. Life was rough and tough in those days and travellers could expect little or nothing in the way of comfort whether afloat or ashore. At the same time a ‘shipping line’ that could, as it were, offer its own insurance in the form of guaranteed lodgings, and even medical treatment, was certain to prove attractive.

Legend has it—and it is possibly no more than legend—that Brother Gerard was not expelled from Jerusalem along with the other pilgrims, but that he stayed there throughout the siege and helped the crusaders by supplying them with bread. As Riley-Smith writes:

 

…the city under siege was the scene of his performance of the miracle required by his hagiographers. It was said that, together with the other inhabitants, he was ordered to help defend Jerusalem. He knew that the crusaders outside the walls were hungry, and so each day he took small loaves up onto the parapet and hurled these at the Franks instead of stones. He was seen by the Arab guards who arrested him and took him before the governor. But when the loaves were produced in evidence of his crime, they had turned into stones and he was released.

 

Forgetting the matter of the bread into stones, it seems somewhat unlikely that a friar who ran a hospice for Christian pilgrims was allowed to remain in the city during the siege. On the other hand our authorities for this period unanimously declare that this was so, and that Gerard was of the greatest assistance to the besieging army. The only logical explanation would be that—hospitals being rare enough at the time—the city’s governor allowed him to remain so that he and his assistants could look after any of the garrison or citizens who were injured during the fighting. One thing is certain; after the capture of Jerusalem by the army of the First Crusade, the fortunes of the small foundation over which Gerard presided were made.

It is quite clear that the foundation administered by Gerard was of the greatest value to the army and the pilgrims who now thronged Jerusalem. The Hospital inevitably expanded, and in those days when dying men made lavish gifts to the Church, and when men who survived also paid their dues, it was inevitable that the Hospital should benefit.

Evidence that it enjoyed great favour is shown by the fact that Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first ruler of Latin Jerusalem, made the Hospital a gift of some land. His example was to be followed over the years by many others who wished to record their thanks for the services of Gerard and his helpers.

Godfrey of Bouillon had refused to be called King of Jerusalem on the ground that no man should be called a king in the city where Christ had died on the cross. His successor, Baldwin of Boulogne, did not take such a pious view of things and had himself crowned, thus creating the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. He too took the Hospital under his care and protection, and after a victory over an Egyptian army presented the Hospital with a tenth of all the booty. He thus established a precedent which was to make the Hospital one of the richest Orders in the world. His example was soon followed by many rich ecclesiastics in the East, who gave it a tithe of their revenues.

The saintliness of Brother Gerard has often been stressed by historians of the Order that he founded, and there is no doubt that he was indeed a good and noble man. He was also eminently practical—as have been many saints—and an excellent organiser. Before he died in 1120 he had so firmly laid the foundations of the Order that it has endured into the twentieth century. It was recognised as an independent Order by the papacy seven years before his death, by which time it had become the owner of large properties in France, Italy and Spain. With these extensive possessions the Hospital began to establish daughter-houses in Europe along the pilgrimage routes. Out of the small seed of the original hospice in Jerusalem there developed a giant oak with branches extending into all Christian countries (for the daughter-houses in their turn received tithes and donations which enabled them to establish yet further hospitals).