In 600, Abbot Probus was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to build a hostel in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 800, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, enlarged Probus' hostel and added a library to it.

Unfortunately, about 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph El Hakim, a fanatic who demanded that his subjects worship him as a god, destroyed the hostel in addition to 3000 other buildings. He made the Christians wear wooden crosses, half a metre long by half a metre wide, around their necks.

 Although Christians were not allowed to buy slaves, male or female, and had few other privileges, they were allowed to ride horses on the condition that they ride with wooden saddles and unornamented girths. Ironically, El Hakim's mother was Christian. In 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Haroun el Raschid of Egypt to rebuild the hospice in Jerusalem.

The hospice, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist, took in Christian pilgrims traveling to visit the birthplace of Jesus. It was served by Benedictine Brothers.