ABSTRACT
In the fourteenth century the Hospitallers, whose traditions usually honoured John as 'certainly the patron of our house', likewise landed upon the shores of Rhodes, and the island became crucial to the survival of the Order over the course of the next two centuries. Rhodes served as an operations base for future efforts to regain a foothold in the Holy Land and justified the Order's existence at a time when its usefulness was coming under increasing scrutiny, from both opponents and proponents of the idea of crusade. The Miracula are the Hospitallers' foundation myths, tales about the supposed origins of the Hospital and its history in the Holy Land. For the Hospitallers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Rhodes was both literally and metaphorically the 'way' to Jerusalem, for documents appended to their rule indicates that a return to the Holy Land continued to be their primary goal.
