At the fall of Acre in May 1291 the Master and nine knights of the Order of St Thomas of Acon were killed. Following the battle, the Holy Land was lost to the Saracens. The Order of St Thomas, along with the Order of Knights Templar, moved their Priory to the island of Cyprus, where they are said to have erected for their use a Church at Nicosia, Ecclesia S. Nicolai Anglicorum.
The Order ceased to be a viable military organisation with nothing more being heard of the master in Nicosia after 1360.
Bedestan / former Church / (?St Nicholas Church of the English?)
photo 6881448687 by Europa Nostra at www.flickr.com ... behind, two minarets of Selimye Mosque (former Latin cathedral of S. Sophia)
Built in the 12th century as an extension to a small 6th century Byzantine church, the church is located in the walled part of the city. Dedicated to St. Nicholas, it was associated with Thomas à Becket. In the 16th century it became the Greek Orthodox Cathedral. When Christian churches were closed by the Ottomans, it became a grain store and cloth market, or bedestan. With the roof collapsed and structural damage, restoration was a project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In November, 2009, after a five-year restoration, the Bedestan was re-opened as a multi-culture venue and exhibition space. Located centrally in the old walled city, it is open to visit from 10am to 1pm, except for Wednesdays (2.30pm to 5pm) and Sundays (closed).
The following video shows the restored structure:
The following map and text (in italics) are from the All Crusades web page:
The building known as The Bedestan or Bedesten to (Cypriot) Turks - i.e. an Exchange or Market - is the Orthodox Metropolis of the Venetian period in Nicosia. By the "Bulla Cypria" of 1260, the Orthodox Bishop of Solia, or of the district of Nicosia was prohibited from residing within the city of Nicosia, but during the Venetian occupation of Cyprus this law must have been relaxed and Bernardo Sagredo speaks of "quel di Solia che fa residentia in Nicosia", in 1562.
It stands at the south-west corner of the Latin cathedral precincts, and seems built as if in rivalry with its greater competitor of the foreign and dominant religion. The history of the building, like all or most Orthodox monuments in the island, has still to be fully discovered. No date or inscription survives upon its walls, and the only clue of an historical character rests in the row of small Venetian shields sculptured on the lintel of the great north door.
The earliest references to the church are made by Pierre Mesenge (1507) and by Jacques le Saige (1518), the first of whom describes it as the Greek cathedral "dedicated to Our Lady" (metropolis).
De Bruyn (1700) mentions it as then in use as a Bazar, and Mariti (Viaggi, 1769) says: "Quite close to the said mosque there is another beautiful building, dedicated to St. Nicholas, Bishop, as one sees from a figure of the said Saint in bas relief still remaining over the door. This church also had three aisles and columns on which are painted various saints much damaged. The place is now called Bezestan, a kind of market where all kinds of goods are sold. It is the business resort of the chief merchants of Nicosia, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians. If this church has not been profaned by being made a mosque, it has had no better fate in becoming a fair". (This statement on the part of Mariti is perhaps the origin of a curious "mare's nest" identification of the building with the interesting Order of St. Thomas of Canterbury - see "Monuments of Cyprus, George Jeffery, 1918, page 74).
De Mas Latrie (1847) saw the church in use, as at present, for a grain or lumber store. The name of "St. Nicholas" seems to have been adopted by De Mas Latrie and as a consequence the subsequent writers on Cyprus, Bishop Stubbs, Dr. Hackett and Enlart have enlarged upon the idea that this must be the church known in the XlVth century as "Ecclesia S. Nicolai Anglicorum". But as it will be shown (on another webpage - Hans Doeleman) that the building bears every evidence of dating in its present form from a period at least two hundred years after the disappearance of the Order of S. Thomas such an identification is hard to prove.
Welcome. We meet on the mornings of the fourth Saturday in Februaryand
the third Saturdays of April and October
(please contact Secretary to confirm)
A/Secretary: R Num
PO Box 390
BURNSIDE SA 5066
Australia
About the Order
The Commemorative Order of St. Thomas of Acon is an independent body of Freemasons who must be Christians and subscribing members of a Preceptory of Masonic Knights Templar, as well as subscribing members of a Craft Lodge and of a Royal Arch Chapter. Membership is by invitation.
The Order was established in 1974 following twenty years research in London's Guildhall Library by John E N Walker.
The basic organisation of the Order is a Chapel, headed by a Master and a Prior. As at August 2009 there were more than 80 Chapels of the Order worldwide.
The Order was founded in and is governed from England, with Provinces including for Australia South and New Zealand, and for Australia North.
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