AVIS, ORDER OF SAINT BENEDICT OF. - A military association of Portuguese knights returning from the Crusades. It arose around 1146 and received from the first king of Portugal, Afonso, the city of Évora, taken from the Moors. The knights were therefore first called the “brothers of Saint Mary of Évora.” After the conquest of Avis, they settled in the castle of that city and were called “knights of Saint Benedict of Avis,” having adopted the Benedictine Rule in 1162.
Similar to the knights of Calatrava in Spain, the knights of Saint Benedict of Avis adopted the Cistercian Rule, and they modeled the cut of their military mantle on the Cistercian habit: white with a red cross in the shape of a tau. Moreover, they obtained from the knights of Calatrava some seats that these held in Portugal, on the condition that these seats be visited by the Grand Master of Calatrava. For these reasons, the knights of Avis have sometimes been considered a branch of the Order of Calatrava, though they never ceased to have a Portuguese Grand Master.
The mission of the military orders in Portugal seemed exhausted with the decline of Muslim rule, but Portuguese overseas expeditions opened a new field of activity for them. The knights of Avis performed acts of great valor during the first landings in Africa, the conquest of Ceuta, and the attacks on Tangier. But soon enthusiasm waned, the African crusade became a commercial enterprise, and the king was invested in perpetuity with the office of Grand Master (1551).
The religious spirit of the knights diminished; in 1492 they were dispensed from celibacy by Alexander VI, and Julius III allowed them to dispose freely of their personal property (1551). The greatest
