About us
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 went to defend the palisade of Calatrava the Old once abandoned by the Templars.
"It was thus that, impelled and forced by divine impulse, he got up as if in a dream, and, terrified, he went to Raymond's room, which was adjacent to his, and with excessive and altered voices, which did not seem like his ordinary modesty, He woke up saying: "Holy, Father, we are going to war against the Moors." The old saint, amazed at what he saw, as one who knew the religion, quietness and discretion of Brother Diego, bid him farewell with love and gentleness. returned to his room, telling him: "the true war of the monk had to be quiet and solitude, doing penance and crying for his faults and those of the people."
And Abbot Raimundo and Fray Diego Velázquez, presented themselves to the king, knights-errant from pages of legend, asking him to defend the Plaza de Calatrava, given to the sovereign by the Knights Templar, defenders of it since the conquest by Alfonso VII in 1147. , but fearful now, 1158, before the formidable preparations that the
enemies of the Christian name. The holiness of the abbot and the memory of the warrior valor of Fray 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 the blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Congregation of the Cistercian, and you Don Raimundo, abbot of Santa María de Fitero, and all your friars, both present and future, of the town called Calatrava, so that you may have it and possess it , free and peaceful, by oath of inheritance, from now on forever, and defend it from the pagan enemies of the Cross of Christ, with their favor and ours... Date the letter 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 famous Lord Don Alfonso, Emperor of Spain, died I, King Don Sancho, sign and confirm with my own seal this letter, which I ordered to be written."
Our Order was born out of the love of history and that historical legacy that the
Calatravo Knights , to keep their memory fresh, and sow with our example pillars as important as
Faith , the
family unit and the
unity of the homeland . Those brave warrior-monks defined what our nation is today, they fought for values that are reviled today and that our Order intends to spread so that they remain alive and our Christian Faith follows the path of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are a humble Order, but strong in values , our Knights maintain the rules of the Cistercian monks adapted to the 21st century, men and women committed to their Country, following the example of our founder, protected by the mantle of our Mother Saint Mary of the Martyrs, a Romanesque carving found in the Parish of Santiago Apóstol de Carrión de Calatrava.
One of our main ideas is to offer the cult of Saint Mary of the Martyrs already our founder San Raimundo de Fitero so that our rich history, our faith, our culture and religion are not forgotten.
Our Order is based on Faith in God and as such we define ourselves Catholics , respecting our Holy Mother Church and being part of it, because we believe in the Christian community, in the Church that each one of us makes up and that we try to bring light day by day to this path that is undoubtedly not easy, but with Faith and hope in Christ.
These purposes also include:
- Promote the entire Calatrava La Vieja area.
- Promote the tourist and cultural interest of Calatrava.
- Develop historical recreation activities within the geographical framework.
- Promote and intensify scientific development and dissemination of medieval studies.
- Dissemination and broadcast of history in both audiovisual and written media.
The Order of Custodian Knights has a Master Table that make up the Master , he Chancellor , he Fiscal and 9 more members among the Commander Major , Commanders , and Gentlemen , with the objective of planning and executing days of informative and cultural campaigns of Calatrava and its surroundings.
From this website we encourage you to join this exciting and important project in achieving our main objectives of which we humbly do not give up in our efforts.
By Maestre Pedro Carriazo Yébenes
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