The Chivalric Order of Our Lady of Sion is proud to have a direct line of succession, through adoption, with Guy of Lusignan, sovereign of Jerusalem and King of Cyprus (born 1129 – died Cyprus 1194).
There are several lines that monarchically can claim the Kingdom of the Holy Land.The oldest lines are two: the first descends directly from King David, from the family of Jesus, the Savior and heir to the throne of Israel. When the Savior was crucified, this monarchical inheritance passed to James, one of the Apostles, the first bishop of Jerusalem, and then to St. Peter, the first bishop of Rome. This line therefore coincides with the Apostolic line, which after the Council of Trent became a prerogative of the authority of bishops, that is, the legitimate successors of the Apostles. The second monarchical line descends from Godfrey of Bouillon to Guy of Lusignan, known as the Kings of Jerusalem. Our Order counts among its founders the Right Reverend Dom Alistair Bate, consecrated Bishop on August 15, 2007, by Bishops Andrew Linley and Michael Skelly, and reconsecrated sub conditione on November 23, 2008, by Archbishop Bertil Persson of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. He is, therefore, the holder of more than forty lines of apostolic succession from the historical churches of both East and West, being the 114th in apostolic succession from the Apostle Saint Thomas, through the Chaldean Catholic succession, and the 137th in apostolic succession from the Apostle Saint Peter, through the Syriac Orthodox succession, the Antiochian succession (263rd through the Petrine succession via the Roman Catholic Church). Furthermore, Monsignor Alistair Bate is, through his consecrations, a descendant of Monsignor Roger Caro, alias Pierre Phiebus, who in turn descended by adoption from the House of De Lusignan.The Chivalric Order of Our Lady of Sion is, furthermore, recognized by the Augustinian Justinian Heraclian Imperial House of the Holy Roman Empire of the East and is under the High Spiritual Protection of the Holy Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
