The Church and Christendom

In order to promote Christendom, i.e. the social and political reign of Our Lord, Holy Mother Church established two important institutions. First of all, the royal or imperial anointing and coronation, a sacramental which gives a participation in the Kingship of Christ, and graces in order to fulfil the corresponding mission. However, faced with the social chaos after Charlemagne’s death, the Church reminded even barons and knights that they had, at their own level, the same duties as the kings. Consequently, She Christianised the military dubbing, modelling it after the coronation rite and giving it an official mission along with the corresponding graces. This is how Christendom reached its apex.

However, in order to protect Christendom, the Church also founded another two institutions: the Crusades, with the temporary vow of the Cross, and Military Orders –Orders of Chivalry– of a permanent nature, with religious vows for religious knights and private vows for secular knights. So, how could the Kingship of Christ be restored today? Probably using institutions established for that very purpose. By definition, they are the best way to reach the goals they were given: good for all times and everywhere. It is upon these last two perennial institutions that the Order of the Knights of Our Lady was founded in France in 1945 by Gérard Lafond, with the support of Dom Gabriel Gontard, Benedictine Abbot of St Wandrille, and was canonically erected by Bishop Roger Michon of Chartres in 1965, with Our Lady as our Sovereign and St Michael as our Grand-Master. It was later also canonically erected in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain.