History

The Order of the Hospitaller Knights of St. John the Baptist (Real y Benemérita Institución de Caballeros Hospitalarios de San Juan Bautista) was created as a separate Order in 1802.

The Spanish Red Cross, part of the International Red Cross founded at the Geneva Convention in 1864, had replaced the Hospitallers as an active agency in humanitarian works.

The Order was controlled by a Supreme Council and led by Flores. Chapters were created in Madrid, Cádiz, Seville and Barcelona. The first hospital of the Order was the Hospital of Our Lady of Atocha in Madrid. A limited legitimacy was given to the Order in 1876 when King Don Alfonso XII approved of the statutes and rules of the Order. These were confirmed in 1881. Pope Leo XIII granted the Order spiritual benefices in a Brief signed on April 27, 1880.

Conscious that they were continuing the Hospitaller tradition, the badge of the Order was designed as a red-enameled medallion displaying a white Maltese Cross, with a gold fleur-de-lys in each intersection of the four arms, and ensigned with a Crown. As a result of protests from the Government, to distinguish their badge from that of the Royal Order, a small capital ""H"" was placed in the centre of the Cross.