BETHLEHEMITES, a name borne at different times by three orders in the Roman Catholic Church. (I) A community of friars at Cambridge, in 1257, whose habit was distinguished from that of the ordinary Dominicans by a five-rayed red star (in reference to Matt. ii. 9 f .) . (2) An order of knighthood similar to the Knights of St. John, established by Pius II. in 1459 to resist the inroads of the Turks. (3) The Bethlehemite Order of Guatemala, a nursing community founded in 165o by Pedro Betancourt (d. 1667), and raised to an order by Innocent XI. in 1687. They spread throughout Central America and Mexico and as far south as Lima, and with the corresponding order of sisters were conspicuous for their devotion during times of plague and other contagious diseases. This order became extinct about 185o.