In 2008, these rival obediences were reconciled and reunited into a single order once again, led at that time by Carlos Gereda y de Borbón as grand master, and with the spiritual protection of the (now former) Patriarch Gregory III Laham of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.

However, during the period of separation, the Paris Obedience had experienced further schisms, with the creation in 1995 of the United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus (led at that time by John Baron von Hoff), and in 2004 of the Orléans Obedience (led at that time by Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans under the protection of Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris).

The promulgation of the 1905 bull led the Council of the Order of Saint Lazarus to re-organize itself and become secularized under the protection of the Melkite Patriarchy formally statuting these changes in 1910.

The evidence for this, albeit quite plausible, is circumstantial due to the destruction of pertinent records during the 1860 Druze/Marionite Mount Lebanon conflagration and further ruination of Patriarchal papers at Al-Ain in the 1983 civil war.

Accordingly, in France, the purported mother country of Saint Lazarus, there is no evidence or reference to the claim that the modern organization has been prohibited from using the designation ‘order’ and wearing chivalric insignia.

The only thing ICOC correctly mentions is that the Order carries out praiseworthy charitable, humanitarian activity producing numerous contributions to social works and therefore it might be included in a category of organisations inspired by chivalry.

[19] Although no longer exclusively a Roman Catholic order of knighthood (being open to Christians of other denominations), it is, in many nations and sub-national jurisdictions, by canon law, considered to be an association of the faithful.

[18] These widely lauded Hospitaller functions have led observers, like Augustan Society's Chivalry Committee chair Jean-Paul Gauthier de la Martiniere to declare that St. Lazarus is certainly "much more than a self-styled order.

To avoid any possible doubts, even owing to illicit issuing of documents or the inappropriate use of sacred places, and to prevent the continuation of abuses which may result in harm to people of good faith, the Holy See confirms that it attributes absolutely no value whatsoever to certificates of membership or insignia issued by these groups, and it considers inappropriate the use of churches or chapels for their so-called "ceremonies of investiture".Notwithstanding the controversy, ever since the statutes of 1910, a number of prominent Catholic prelates, including cardinals, have acted as chaplains in different positions of the order.

The mainline united order enjoys as Spiritual Protector the Patriarch of Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Youssef Absi.

[29] In May 2021 Catholic Church in the Czech Republic revoked title of private association of Christians to the order in the country due to controversy of political disputes with the national branch of the Orleáns Obedience.

[38] In 2004, the count of Paris allowed his nephew Prince Charles Philippe, Duke of Anjou to take the position of 49th grand master of the order in the Orléans obedience.

[7] This statute explicitly placed the governance in the hands of the magistracy, whose decisions were sovereign and irrevocable, thus manifested as a laicised order, albeit with Patriarch Cyril VIII Jaha of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church as confirmed protector.

That occurred in 1969 with the election of the 12th Duke of Brissac as grand master, with the approval of the Count of Paris, head of the Royal House of France, solicited by the Patriarch Maximos V Hakim.

The majority of the membership, including nearly all of the anglophone members, were led by a series of Spanish Borbón grand masters, and came to be known as the Malta obedience, as Gayre was headquartered there.

The Orléans obedience subsequently gained the temporal protection of the Head of the Royal House of France, Henri d'Orléans, Count of Paris, uncle of the Duke of Anjou.

[47] Again, on 31 January 2014, Henri d'Orléans expressly stated that only he can represent the Royal House of France and that "cette protection temporelle leur a été retirée par ma démission es qualités, notifiée à Pâques 2012.

[50] He explained that this amalgamation was established to defend the cultural heritage of France and to assure that the Order of Saint Lazarus continues its hospitaller missions of mercy and care.

Some argue that the heads of formerly regnant houses, like the Count of Paris, by right of blood (jure sanguinis), can (jus honorum) even create or revive household orders moto proprio as an inviolable family prerogative.

Prominent Italian jurist and president of chamber of the Italian Republic's highest court of appeal the Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Ercole Tanturri, expressed the idea of heritable sovereignty as "a perpetual quality, indelibly linked and united in the centuries to all the offspring of one who first achieved or claimed and is realized in the person of the Head of Name and Arms of Dynasty.

[55] On 19 December 2016, Count Jan Dobrzenský, the 50th grand master, was knighted by Pope Francis as a Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.

[26] In 2018, Francisco de Borbón Graf von Hardenberg [cs] was elected as grand master of the Order of Saint Lazarus (Malta-Paris obedience).

[60] This 'Jerusalem obedience' now has as its Grand Master Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma and enjoys the spiritual patronage of Anglican Bishop Richard Garrard, emeritus Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See.

It has been engaged in a major charitable program to revive Christianity in Eastern Europe: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and the Near East: Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories.

Millions of dollars worth of food, clothing, medical equipment and supplies have been distributed by the LHW-volunteers of the Humanitarian Grand Priory Europe (GPEU) in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia and North Macedonia.

Because of this experience, the European Community commissioned the LHW-volunteer organisation Lazarus-Hilfswerk to transport more than 21,000 tons of food to the hungry in Russia and to distribute it in St. Petersburg, Novorod and Moscow.

Dames of the order wear the badge with wreath of laurel and oak springs from a ribbon bow and a golden breast star.

This body's website states that an organisation called the "United Grand Priories of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem" was established in 1995.

The organisation also has a prestigious Companionate of Merit for persons from all over the world who have aided and assisted the order or who have performed meritorious philanthropic or social work in their career.

[91][92] The Grand Priory of Carpathia is an alliance of jurisdictions of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem that are located within the Carpathian Basin, or adjacent to it, or historically were part of the Kingdom of Hungary or the Austro-Hungarian Empire.