BETHLEHEMITES. - Chivalric orders and religious congregations.

I. - This name is borne by certain chivalric orders, among which are remembered the order of the B. at Cambridge in 1257, the order of the B. that flourished in Bohemia from 1217 onward with hospital activity, and the one founded by Pius II, on the model of the Knights of Rhodes, to protect the Christians of the Greek islands with its seat on the island of Lemnos (19 Jan. 1459), which disappeared immediately.

II. - Under the same name two Congregations are known: one male and one female, of Latin America. The first, at the outset a simple confraternity of brothers, Franciscan Tertiaries assigned to the Hospital and the school of Our Lady of Bethlehem, founded by the servant of God Pietro di Béthencourt (1653) in the city of Guatemala, was erected into a Congregation by Innocent XI on 26 May 1687 (cf. Bullarium, XIX, Turin 1870, pp. 735-51), with the vows of serving the poor and of persevering in the Congregation, in addition to the three customary vows, and placed under the rule of St. Augustine. Clement XI (3 Apr. 1710 and 24 July 1711) declared it a Congregation with solemn vows, with the privileges of the Mendicants and of the Ministers of the Sick (cf. op. cit., XXI, ibid. 1871, pp. 385-87, 431-33 and passim). Benedict XIII (24 July 1729) permitted that some priests also enter among the B. (cf. op. cit., XXII, ibid. 1871, pp. 855-56). The B. spread widely in Latin America, but the suppression decreed by the Cortes in 1820 found them greatly decayed.

The female Congregation, with the same hospital and educational aims as the male one, was founded in 1668 by the Bethlehemite brother Antonio della Croce in collaboration with Anna Maria del Gualdo. It was suppressed in 1820; nevertheless the house of Guatemala remained standing, though far from its first fervor, where in 1830 Vincenza Rosal entered, taking the name of Sister Maria Incarnation (1815-86). This mother, elected superior in 1849, promoted the reform of the Congregation which, after various migrations and suppressions due to the anti-religious struggles of Central America (1870 and following), revived at Pasto in Colombia (1885). The Congregation received the decree of praise from the Holy See on 28 Feb. 1891 with the title of "Bethlehemites of the Sacred Heart of Jesus," to which the reforming foundress was most devoted. The constitutions were definitively approved on 25 Jan. 1936. The mother house is in Bogotá; it comprises 35 houses and over 400 sisters.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: v. entry BÉTHENCOURT Pedro; furthermore: Anon., Vita della Madre Incarinazione, fondatrice delle Suore Betlemite Figlie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù, Rome 1906; J. M. Besse, s. v. in The Cath. Enc., II, coll. 334-36; Pastor, II, pp. 37-38; M. Heimbucher, Die Orden u. Kongregationen der hath. Kirche, 3rd ed., I, Paderborn 1934, pp. 608-609, 613.

A. Pietro Frutaz

@incollection{ec2_betlemiti, author = {Frutaz, Amato Pietro}, title = {Betlemiti}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1515--1516}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/betlemiti} }

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