1591

May 1-31. Amatus abbas of St Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, together with his convent, records how they sent frater Arnaldus, the prior, and frater Joannes to Antioch on their abbey’s business and to establish what the abbey had owned for a long time. The brothers, wishing to preserve the abbey’s properties in future, found a cleric of Patriarch Peter of Antioch called Joannes diaconus, the son of dominus Helias de Cursalt, who became a confrater. In the presence of the patriarch, Arnaldus and Joannes assigned to Joannes clericus et diaconus one of the abbey’s guastinae, situated next to the house of the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, in which there was a ruined oratory dedicated to the Mother of God. Joannes diaconus promised to repair it so that the brothers of St Mary could worship there. He was bound to build a house and to plant fruit bearing trees and a viridarium in the guastina and also to recover goods of St Mary which had been alienated. The abbot seals a confirmation of the new position of Joannes. Witnesses: Arnaldus prior; frater Adam; frater Petrus; frater Joannes; frater Julianus.