The original order of Knights Templar (The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, la Milice du Christ) was organized no later than 1114 A.D. by Hugues de Payen, Andre de Montbard, and other Christian men, as an order for warrior-monks. Because of the slaughter by the Saracens of three hundred pilgrims journeying from Jerusalem to the Jordan River on Easter Sunday in 1119, the Order of the Temple was formally reauthorized in 1119 by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem to protect pilgrims on the roads of Outremer.
The Order received its first charter in 1120, from the Council of Nablus, also to protect Christian pilgrims in Outremer. The Council of Troyes, in the Province of Champagne, France, in January 1128, formally approved and chartered the Templars as a sovereign and chivalric religious military order to gave the order a Rule of poverty, chastity, and obedience, written by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (nephew of Andre de Montbard), which was a variant of St. Bernard’s own Cistercian Rule. The Cistercians were a branch of the Order of Saint Benedict; hence, there is an historic connection between the Benedictine Order and the Knights Templar.
The Templars were the protectors and defenders of the Holy Land during the Crusades. They eventually settled in Cyprus and then in the South of France. The order became too wealthy and powerful, lost papal support, and was suppressed in 1307. The order moved to the British Isles and continued there for several centuries. Chivalry, fostered by the Church in the Middle Ages, tamed the Knights with the romantic ideals of gallantry, courtesy, honor, respect for women and the protection of orphans, widows and the sick.
Similar orders were established as the Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaler of St. John.
Our Military Order of Knights of the Temple of Solomon (O.M.M.T.S.) is a modern continuity of the Knights Templar ideals. We were established in A.D. 1995 in letters patent by Archbishop Metropolitan Alexis Rozewicz, in Wilmington, Delaware, since 2003 we are operating under the protectorate of the Association of Independent Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the O.M.M.T.S. is not or has been associated with the O.S.M.T.J., NYC Priory of St. Michael & St. George, neither with any other Templar Institution/Organization or Masonic Lodges.
The Templar Cross we use to identify ourselves is of public domain. We are dedicated to the royal Kingship of Jesus Christ and to the faithful defense of his Holy Name. We nobly protect all that is holy, true and good and those who are weak, sick or in need, continuing the ideals of the Knights Templar in our own times.