Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony

The Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony, Order of St. Anthony or Canons Regular of St. Anthony of Vienne (Canonici Regulares Sancti Antonii, or CRSAnt), also Antonines, were a Roman Catholic congregation founded in c. 1095, with the purpose of caring for those suffering from the common medieval disease of St. Anthony's fire.

The congregation was founded c. 1095 by Gaston of Valloire, a nobleman of the Dauphiné, and his son, and confirmed by Pope Urban II in the same year, in thanksgiving for the son's miraculous cure from St. Anthony's fire thanks to the relics of Saint Anthony the Great.

The relics were housed in the church of Saint Anthony at La-Motte-Saint-Didier (the present Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye, Isère), to which was attached a Benedictine priory, whose members tended the shrine. Gaston and his community, which at this date was composed of laymen, set up a hospital nearby, where they cared for pilgrims to the shrine and for the sick, particularly those afflicted with St. Anthony's fire, a disease very common in the Middle Ages, particularly among the poor. Relations with the resident Benedictines were not good, however, and conflicts were frequent.

The members of the community wore a black habit with the Greek letter Tau (also known as St. Anthony's cross) in blue. At first laymen, they received sanction as a monastic order from Pope Honorius III in 1218. In 1248 they adopted the Rule of St. Augustine and were constituted canons regular by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297. At this time the conflict that had grown up between the Antonines and the Benedictine monks responsible for the relics had become severe: the Pope put an end to it by dismissing the Benedictines to Montmajour Abbey and giving custody of the shrine to the Antonines.

...
Wikipedia