AVIS, ORDER OF SAN BENEDETTO. — Military association of Portuguese knights who had returned from the Crusades. Founded around 1146, it received as a gift from the first king of Portugal, Alfonso, the city of Evora, taken from the Moors. The knights therefore initially received the name of «brothers of S. Maria of Evora». After the conquest of A., they established themselves in the castle of that city and were called «knights of s. Benedetto of A.», having adopted the Benedictine rule in 1162.
In imitation of the knights of Calatrava in Spain, the knights of s. Benedetto of A. adopted the Cistercian rule, and based the design of their military mantle on the Cistercian habit: white, with a red fleur-de-lis cross. On the other hand, they obtained from the knights of Calatrava certain establishments that the latter possessed in Portugal, on condition that those establishments be visited by the Grand Master of Calatrava. For these reasons, the knights of A. have sometimes been regarded as a branch of the Order of Calatrava, although they never ceased to have a Portuguese Grand Master.
The mission of the military Orders in Portugal seemed to have been completed with the decline of Muslim rule, but the Portuguese expeditions overseas opened a new field of activity for them. The knights of A. performed acts of great valor during the first landings in Africa, the conquest of Ceuta, and the attacks against Tangier. But enthusiasm soon faded, the Crusade in Africa became a commercial enterprise, and the king was invested permanently with the office of Grand Master (1551).
The religious spirit of the knights gradually weakened; in 1492 they were dispensed from celibacy by Alexander VI, and Julius III permitted them to dispose freely of their personal property (1551). The principal qualification
required of aspirants continued to be aristocratic birth. Queen Maria I, with the assent of Pius VI, attempted one final reform, which failed: the knights of A. were suppressed by don Pedro in 1834.