The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (Latin: Ordo Militaris Crucigerorum cum Rubea Stella, Crucigeri cum rubea stella, Crucigeri stellati, Stelliferi, Czech: Rytířský řád Křižovníků s červenou hvězdou, German: Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern, postnominal initials: O.Cr., O.Crucig.

Despite relatively clear origins of the Order, its beginnings used to be subject of legends, especially in the Baroque period: Traditionally its roots were traced back to Holy Land.

The Order eventually spread its activities into other places in the Czech lands (České Budějovice, Cheb, Litoměřice, Stříbro, Znojmo-Hradiště, etc.).

The Order thus gained a prestigious role, yet at the same time it was obliged to economically support the impoverished Prague Diocese and to finance its development.

Of this long period, the last two Grand Master on the St. Adalbert's See, Arnost Vojtěch of Harrach and Jan Bedřich of Waldstein, are worth mentioning.

In 1692, Jan Bedřich of Wallenstein, with the help of his later successor and then Prior of the Order, Jiří Ignác Pospíchal, completed the building of St. Agnes Hospital, which stood on the site of today's Slavia Café at the corner of Národní třída in Prague.

Grand Master John Francis Franchimont of Frankenfeld was granted by Pope Clement XI the right to use mitre and other pontifical insignia (crosier, pectoral cross, ring) for himself and his successors.

The painters Václav Vavřinec Reiner, Petr Brandl, Karel Škréta and Michael Willmann used to work for the Order.

The initiative of Grand Master Josef Antonín Köhler, who founded the first children's a nursery in Bohemia in Prague-Karlín, can be described as a certain substitute, or perhaps a new expression, of the Order's original charisma.

However, these losses were compensated, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century, by the expansion of activities even in new locations in the Czech lands (Karlovy Vary-Rybáře, Věteřov).

It was only after his death that his further life story came to light: After his desertion from the Order, Postl became a successful writer, publishing under the pseudonym Charles Sealsfield.

All this culminates in the extensive reconstruction of the monastery near Charles Bridge, which was designed by the architect Josef Sakař and completed in 1912.

[10] The first decade of the service of Grand Master František Xaver Marat was marked by extensive building development of the Order, which was crowned by the reconstruction of the monastery at Charles Bridge (1908-1912).

After 1918, in the turbulent atmosphere of the young Czechoslovak republic and in the anti-Catholic sentiment that resonated in Czech society, there were talks about the dissolution of monasteries.

[12] After the Munich Agreement in 1938, when part of Czechoslovakia fell to Nazi Germany, a significant number of the Order's parishes (in western Bohemia) found themselves outside the Czechoslovak borders.

[14] During the war, some of the Order members were persecuted by Nazis: Karel Weis and Ladislav Sirový were imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp.

[15] The end of World War II in May 1945 enabled the revival of religious life in the monastery near Charles Bridge.

Due to the forced transfer of the German population of Czechoslovakia, the German-speaking members of the Order left for Germany along with their parishioners in 1946.

The Grand Master of the Order was destined to spend the rest of his life in the parish of St. Peter in Poříčí in respect of his advanced age.

In 1988, at the time of the mitigation of the state's anti-church policy, Dr. Ladislav Sirový was elected the 46th Grand Master and General of the Order.

He was installed in office by Cardinal František Tomášek in a private ceremony in the chapel of the Prague Archbishop's Palace.

[8] 12 November 1989 became an important milestone in the history of the Order when its founder, St. Agnes of Bohemia, was canonized in Rome by Pope John Paul II.

The tragic event of 12 February 1992 marked the further course of the Order: The Grand Master Ladislav Sirový dies after a serious car accident.