Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CANONS REGULAR OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, an order said to have been founded in 1114 (or, according to other accounts, during the rule of Godfrey of Bouillon in Jerusalem) on the rule of St Augustine. Pope Celestine III., in 1143, confirms the Church and Canons of the Holy Sepulchre in all their possessions, and enumerates several churches both in the Holy Land and in Italy belonging to the Canons. According to Jacques de Vitry, the canons served the churches on Mount Sion and Mount Olivet in addition to that of the Holy Sepulchre. The canons survived in Europe till the French Revolution. In Italy they seem to have been suppressed by Innocent VIII. in 1489, and their property given to the Knights of St John. The canons are now extinct, but canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre are still to be found in various countries of Western Europe.