Who we are

To explain who we are, we must first go back a few centuries, when the founder of the Order of Saint Raymond of Fitero Back in the year 1158 of the era of Our Lord Jesus Christ, he came to defend the palisade of Calatrava the Old once abandoned by the Templars.

"It was thus that, impelled and forced by a divine impulse, he rose as if in a dream, and, terrified, he went to Raimundo's room, which was next to his own, and with excessive and altered voices, which did not seem to correspond to his ordinary modesty, he woke up saying: "Saint, Father, we are going to war against the Moors." The holy old man, amazed at what he saw, as one who knew the religion, quietness and discretion of Brother Diego, said goodbye to him with love and gentleness. Ordering him to return to his room, telling him: "the true war of the monk had to be quietness and solitude, doing penance and weeping for his faults and those of the people."

And Abbot Raimundo and Brother Diego Velázquez, knights errant from pages of legend, presented themselves to the king, asking him to defend the Plaza de Calatrava, handed over to the sovereign by the Knights Templar, defenders of the same since the conquest by Alfonso VII in 1147, but fearful now, 1158, before the formidable preparations that the

enemies of the Christian name. The sanctity of the abbot and the memory of the warrior courage of Friar Diego, moved Sancho III to write the following in Almazán: "I, King Don Sancho, by the grace of God, son of the illustrious Emperor of Spain of good memory, by divine inspiration, make a letter of donation and text of writing forever, valid to God, and to the blessed Virgin Mary, and to the Holy Congregation of the Cistercians, and to you Don Raimundo, Abbot of Santa María de Fitero, and to all your friars, both present and future, of the town called Calatrava, so that you may have and possess it, free and peaceful, by right of inheritance, from now on forever, and defend it from the pagan enemies of the Cross of Christ, with their favor and ours... The letter is dated in Almazán in the era of one thousand one hundred and ninety-six (year 1158), in the month of January of the year in which the most famous Lord Don Alfonso, Emperor of Spain, died. I, King Don Sancho, initial and confirm with my own seal this letter, which I ordered to be written."