Crutched Friars

[2] Earlier literature linked most of the Crutched Friars to the Italian Crosiers, but later it was proven that they were a branch of the Belgian Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross.

[4] Their first appearance in England was at a synod of the Diocese of Rochester in 1244, when they presented documents from the Pope and asked to be allowed to settle in the country.

They settled in London in 1249, where they gave their name to the locality, near Tower Hill, still called Crutched Friars.

The Fratres Cruciferi appeared in Ireland at some time before 1176 when they are first listed as being in possession of the Hospital of St. John without the New Gate in Dublin.

[7] The Hospital occupied the site on Thomas Street, Dublin now occupied by the Augustinian Church of Saint Augustine and Saint John the Baptist now served by the mendicant Order of St. Augustine[8] (not to be confused with either the Augustinian Canons – who had many foundations in Ireland, introduced by St. Laurence O'Toole as Archbishop of Dublin to, amongst other churches, Christ Church Dublin[9] – or the Fratres Cruciferi).