Order of Alcántara

ALCÁNTARA, ORDER OF. – A chivalric order founded at S. Juliao de Pereyro in 1156 on the initiative of certain knights from Salamanca, led by D. Suarez Fernández Barrientos, with the aim of uniting the Spanish nobility in the struggle against the Moors. The knights were required to be of genuine noble birth and of blameless life. At first it adopted the Cistercian rule, and was endowed with many privileges, including that of depending directly on the Holy See. From the 13th century it was based in Alcántara, from which it took its definitive name. In the 16th century the vow of chastity was replaced by that of defending the Immaculate Conception. Suppressed during the French occupation and subsequently restored, it was suppressed again by the republic in 1872; but later revived through the will of Alfonso XII.