CROCIGERI DELLA STELLA ROSSA. — A religious order of regular Canons that traces its origin to the Confraternity devoted to caring for the poor in the hospital attached to the monastery of S. Francesco
of the Poor Clares in Prague, founded in 1233 by the blessed Agnese di Boemia, daughter of King Ottocaro. The hospital was endowed with rich bequests by Queen Costanza, and these were confirmed by Gregory IX in two bulls dated 18 May 1235, one addressed to the abbess Agnese and the nuns, the other to the “rector and brothers of the hospital.” It remained under Agnese’s authority until Gregory IX himself, at the abbess’s request, transformed the Confraternity into a religious order under the jurisdiction of the Holy See by the bull Omnipotens Deus of 14 April 1237, and granted it the hospital with all its possessions.
The new Order adopted the Rule of S. Agostino, took as its emblem a six-pointed red cross, and undertook the care of the poor and pilgrims. At first the C. were laymen, but later some of them received sacred orders and undertook pastoral care. They soon grew considerably, and popes and kings enriched them with many privileges. At the time of the Hussite revolts the Order was almost destroyed, retaining only the hospital with the church of S. Francesco; but once the storm had passed, it returned to its former splendor. During the Swedish invasion the C. placed themselves at the head of the people and shared their bread with the soldiers. When the archiepiscopal Curia of Prague was stripped of its possessions, from 1561 to 1694, they supplied the archbishop with everything necessary, also because the archbishop was often the grand master of the Order. Today the religious number slightly more than 70, most of them professed.