Hospitallers, also known as the Order of Hospitallers or Knights Hospitallers, were a group of men attached to a hospital in Jerusalem that was founded by Blessed Gerard around 1023 to provide care for poor, sick, or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land.

They are credited with the first documented application of the hospice philosophy.
In the early 14th century, the order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem opened the first hospice in Rhodes, meant to provide refuge for travelers and care for the ill and dying — but the hospice practice languished later till it was revived in the 17th century.

Connor, S R. Hospice: Practice, Pitfalls, and Promise. Taylor & Francis. 1998. p. 5.