Bethlehemites

Bethlehemites, or Bethlemites, is a name that has many different meanings.

Its original significance was that of an inhabitant of Bethlehem in Judea. It is used in this sense to refer three times to David's father, Jesse, "Jesse the Bethlehemite", in the First Book of Samuel, and is used also in the Second Book of Samuel with reference to another inhabitant of the same town.

Members of four Catholic religious orders have been known by that name. One of them has recently been restored to existence. The other two are extinct.

The author of an article in the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia says that, in his Grande Chronique, Mathew Paris mentions that Henry III of England authorized an order of Bethlehemites to open a house in a suburb of Cambridge in 1257; but he leaves us in complete ignorance as to their founder, where they originated, and their history. We only know that their habit was similar to that of the Dominican order and that a red star, whose five rays emanated from an azure center (in reference to Matthew 2:1–11), decorated the breast of their cape. This was in commemoration of the star that appeared to the Magi and led them to Bethlehem. This order is not to be confused with the military order of the Crusaders of the Red Star (Ordo militaris crucigerorum cum rubea stella), who came from Palestine to Bohemia in 1217, where Blessed Agnes of Bohemia confided two hospitals to their charge. They have since remained in that country where they devote themselves to the care of the sick, to education, and to the various works of the ecclesiastical ministry.

The author states that nothing further is known of this order, which he describes as a military order. He thus fails to indicate if it was connected with the Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem to which was entrusted in 1247, under the same king, the London hospital that later became known as Bedlam. This property had been donated to the Bishop of Bethlehem, and members of the new Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem, wore a star on their cloaks to symbolize their obeisance to the bishopric of Bethlehem. This order was founded in the 13th century and its members were known as the Bethlehemites.

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