Bethlehemite

Bethlehemite, a monastic order founded in Guatemala about 1659, under the patronage of Our Lady of Bethlehem, and at one time widely extended in Spanish America, but now represented only by a few monasteries in Central America. Their special functions were the care of hospitals and schools. An order with a similar name and object existed at Cambridge in the 13th century. The name was also applied to a military order established by. Pius II., 1459, to defend Europe against the Turks, and to the followers of John Huss - in the latter case from Bethlehem church in Prague, where he preached.