There is a lot of mystery surrounding October 13 and much of it has to do with the fate of the Knights Templar, a warrior-monk religious order that may have inspired the Jedi Knights.
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In the early drafts of the Star Wars story, Lucas wrote about a 16-year-old who enters the “Intersystems Academy to train as a potential Jedi-Templer” (The Making of Star Wars). Of note is the use of the word “Jedi-Templar,” in a subtle nod to the Catholic religious military order known as the “Knights Templar.” The word Templar was soon abandoned, but Lucas did not drop the idea entirely, referring to them throughout his films as “Jedi Knights.”
Writer Terrance MacMullan explains how the Knights Templar “were esteemed above other knights for their austerity, devotion, and moral purity. Like the Jedi, they practiced individual poverty within a military-monastic order that commanded great material resources.” Even the Jedi’s garb is reminiscent of the robes worn by the “Christian warrior-monks who took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.”
Unfortunately, rumors grew about secret rituals and heretical teachings being taught to new recruits of the Knights Templar, and King Philip IV of France took advantage of the situation to confiscate the order’s riches. It’s possible that this episode also influenced Lucas, as it was pointed out, “Much like the Great Jedi Purge ordered by Chancellor Palpatine in ‘Revenge of the Sith,’ France’s King Philip IV annihilated the Knights Templar after arresting hundreds of them on October 13, 1307, and subsequently torturing and executing them for heresy.”
Over 700 years later, we recognize the historical day that may have inspired George Lucas with Order 66 (itself biblical in symbolism–666, the number of Satan and more generally, “evil”) and the Great Jedi Purge promulgated by Chancellor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious).
It appears to be no coincidence how October 13 was a day when real-life warrior-monks were arrested and eliminated by a power-hungry ruler.
Philip Kosloski
Philip Kosloski is the founder of Voyage Comics & Publishing and the writer and creator of the comic book series, Finnian and the Seven Mountains.