Freemasons are familiar with the phrase
Erected to God and dedicated to the Holy Saints John
. All Blue Lodges are dedicated to these 2 saints. But we never hear any other information regarding these 2 important figures in Freemasonry or anything else to explain why they are so important to us as Freemasons.
When a new candidate joins a Blue Lodge and is made an Entered Apprentice he is first introduced to and there is referance made to the Holy Saints John. They are referanced as the
perfect paralles of Freemasonry as well as in Christianity
. All of the other brethren are also reminded of these 2 saints. But who are they? Why are they so important to Freemasonry? Why are all Blue Lodges dedicated to them?
In the very early years fo Freemasonry the feast day of St. John the Baptist was always celebrated by the Craft. The first public Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodge of England was born on St. John the Baptist Day. June 24, 1717 in London. After which the Grand Lodge of England sponsored great annual celebrations for many years. Over time the feast of St John the Evangelist became important as well and many lodges moved the beginning of their Masonic year from June 24 to December 27. It is assumed the proximity of Dec. 27 to the beginning of the calendar year made it expedient to do so.
The festival days were of central importance to early American lodges. Both feast days were always celebrated by all well governed early lodges. Records indicate that Brothers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin always made it a point to attend their Lodges respective pbservances of St. Johns Days.
Elections and installation used to be planned on or around these important days of the year. This tradition has fallen by the wayside, as has so many others, but we do retain the vestiges of it. There is always the danger of old traditions becoming habits and the original reason for the tradition being lost.
So who was St. John the Baptist?
The 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark Luke and John as found in the Bible's New Testament all describe him in almost the exact same language. The Baptist, who was a cousin to Jesus Christ, is spoken of as
A voice crying in the wilderness,
whos purpose was to,
Prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight.
He was indeed important otherwise he would not have been refered to in all 4 Gospels with exactly the same language. It is extremely rare to see this in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus himself says John is
Among them that are born of women, there has not risen any greater the John the Baptist.
Very high praise from the Bible indeed. It becomes more clear why we as Freemasons should hold him in such high regard. He was named the Baptist because as he preached he baptized people in the River Jordan, live a simple yet powerful and devout life. He preached single minded righteous living and change of character. His message was one that taught people to live in a holy manner and that deviation from that manner is unacceptable.
Because of his beliefs, his devotion to Jesus and his refusal to change himself despite being told to by those who thought themselves of higher authority he was eventually imprisoned and beheaded by King Herod. His heroism, fidelity and integrity are echoed in the legends of Jacques DeMolay and Hiram Abif. This give us more insight as to why John the Baptist was chosen as one of the Patron Saints of Freemasonry.
That explains a little about St. John the Baptist, but who was St. John the Evangelist?
St. John the Evangelist is very important to Masons and Freemasonry as well. While we do have a relatively concrete biography on John the Baptist, who theology and teachings were straightforward and rigid, the story of the Evangelist is more difficult to relate and requires more study. Saint John the Evangelist is thought to be the amalgamation of several New Testament John's. Including John the Disciple of Christ, John the Epistle and John the Divine of Patmos, the author of the Book of Revelation. There are many reasons why Freemasons would choose St. John the Evangelist as one of our Patron Saints. One of the most important being is his writings read almost like Masonic Ritual.
The Gospel of John begins:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and darkness comprehended it not.
Nowhere else in the Bible since the beginning of Genesis familiar to all Freemasons is the concept of light so enixtricably entwined with the idea of the devine spirit. As the progression is made to the higher degrees the concept of the Word, Light and Devine as inseperable parts of the whole of Creation becomes of primary importance. St. John the Evangelist leads is in that direction.
In his Epistles, he continues to work from the theme that the Word and the Light are inevitably linked and goes on to bring us the Turh and Love in as links of the same chain. The idea and practice of Brotherly Love, one of the Priniciple Tenants fo Freemasonry, and Fellowship is explored more thoroughly by the Evangelist then by any other New Testament writer. The Book of Revelations is full of disturbing images and is considered the source of of many esoteric schools of thought and many writers have made convincing arguments that this is what influence Freemasonry.
St. John the Evangelist is described as one of the most loyal Disciples of Jesus Christ and the one closest to Jesus. At his death Jesus trusted the care of his mother, Mary, to John. In many ways John was Jesus's best friend on earth.
There is the description of who these 2 important figures in Freemasonry are. This has described them as parallel figures in Masonry. Both have an unimpeachable character and have strong influence on the Western Mind. One is dogmatic and rigid and the other is intellectual and esoteric. In both is found the integrity and inflexible fidelity so common to Masonic teaching and that the manner in which it is taught varies between the 2.
Now the question is why? Why St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist? Why have they always been linked to Freemasonry? We know Masonry is not extant in the early Christian era, yet there is no period in Masonry when they do not appear.
Masonic research on the topic of the Saints John can be sure of one thing. It will show the concept of dedication of Lodges to them is indeed
time immemorial.
Some of the earliest Masonic documents speak of the
Saints and of The Lodge of the Holy Saints John at Jerusalem.
In fact at the opening and closing of the First Degree or Entered Apprentice Degree the Worshipful Master asks the Senior Warden,
Brother Senior Warden as an Entered Apprentice from when came you?
The response from the Senior Warden is,
From the Lodge of the Holy Saints John at Jerusalem.
From there they continue with opening or closing on the First Degree.
Craft Masonry and Blue Lodges as they are called have received the care of the Saints John as Patron Saints as something of an heirloom from previous centuries. Lodges of
Saints John
Masonry did exist before 1717. THis leads to our question as to from whence did our Masonry or our Masonic Beliefs come from? Interstingly all 3 traditions of the most common theories of time immemorial Masonic origins have their own relationship with the Saints John.
One theory is there is a school of Masonic research holding that the Fraternity is descended from the Druids and other truly ancient Celtic priesthoods of the sun. Implausible as this theory is, it has a direct correlation to the veneration of the Saints John. Although entirely pagan and pre-Christian, these sun priests claimed as their holiest days the summer and winter solstices the day when the sun shines the most and the day when it shines the least. As this was common among many pagan theologies, the early and medieval Christian Church adopted the solstices as important feast days and simply renamed them for two of the most important saints. The summer solstice was officially fixed to June 24 and dedicated to St. John the Baptist and the winter solstice was fixed to December 27 and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. This is not the only time Christianity has take a pagan belief and adopted/adapted it for their use.
Some say the old pagan traditions live on in Masonry’s celebration of these days. If there is truth in that statement, it is because we celebrate the solstices as an
embodiment of the Masonic ideals of regularity, constancy and order. As Freemasons we naturally work toward order and against irregularity and chaos. Only when a Masonic Lodge conforms to basic orderly usages and customs do we term it a
regular
Lodge and consider it worthy of communication. What better example of order and regularity than these diurnal solstices when the sun inevitably
dies
and is
reborn?
As the early Church saw wisdom in adopting these pagan symbols, perhaps it is not such a leap of faith to see them as Masonic Symbols as well.
Another theory is that modern Masonry evolved from Medieval Stonemason Guilds has come under much questioning. Regardless of these questions, we find a relationship with the Saints John from this theory as well. Of course, all medieval guilds adopted Patron Saints and used their feast days as central gatherings for celebration and also for choosing leaders and other necessary business matters. Stonemason Guilds, most notably in northern England and Scotland, often chose one or both of the Saints Johns as their Patrons. This was not necessarily true on the European continent or in Norman-dominated southern England. The Freemasonry we practice here today, however, came primarily from northern England and Scotland where the Saints John were common among the Stonemason Guilds.
The third theory is that is slowly gaining momentum is that Freemasonry came from knightly orders of the Crusades. Specifically named are the Knights Templar and to a lesser extent the Knights Hospitaller. It is important to note here that the Hospitallers were (and are still today) more properly known as the Knights of St. John. The Saints John are also commonly referred to in Templar records and we know their festival days were of importance to the Templars. When the Templars were suppressed in 1307 most of their property, especially in England, became the property of the Hospitallers. Many Knights Templar in that area joined the Hospitallers following the suppression as well.
Also important in this inquiry is that one of the charges of
heresy
brought against the Templars was that they had become followers of Gnostic Christianity and had in many ways left behind the more traditional Roman Catholic interpretations. This is important in a discussion of the Saints John because the basis of much Gnostic thought is the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist. In effect, the
crimes
of the Templars may have been that they venerated the theology of our Patron Saint John the Evangelist more than that of Saint Paul or Saint Peter.
The tradition of the Saints John carries on to this day in the several British non-Masonic knightly orders.
The Lodges of St. John
existed in London and southern England from the Crusades through the entrance of Freemasonry and even exist today. There can be little doubt that these Lodges had at least some influence on the development of Freemasonry, if they were not indeed Freemasons themselves.
We see that while we can find no real answers to the question of why the Saints John are our Patrons, the lineage of the dedication is clear.
Plato taught that for every thing in creation, including people and organizations, there exists in a non-physical, ethereal subconscious otherworld a perfect form or ideal of that thing. As Freemasons perhaps we should view the Saints John in that context. According to the Book of the Law, as men we are bound to certain frailties and failures. This keeps us all from becoming ideal men and Masons, no matter how
we may try. We should hold for ourselves as the perfect form or ideal of Masons the Holy Saints John. Although we know they were not Freemasons, what we know of them shows them to be perfect examples of what a Freemason should be kind, righteous, loving and above all faithful unto death to the trust reposed in him. They are the Platonic Form of the Freemason never to be achieved, but always to be emulated.
Further extrapolated, we can see the mythical Lodge of the Saints John at Jerusalem as the Platonic Form of a Masonic Lodge. It can and should exist as our ideal of what a Lodge of Masons would be if all its members achieved the ideal Masonic state of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. Perhaps the Christian Mason can even see in that deal Lodge Jesus Christ as Master and the Saints John as Wardens, composing the perfect Lodge. While we have now no more answers on this subject than when we started, we have hopefully shed a little more light or truth, as the Evangelist would see it on our practice of dedicating Lodges to the Holy Saints John.
Always in Masonry, every revealment is also a reveilment and we must always in new knowledge meet new intellectual frustrations. Freemasonry is, after all, the legend of the search for the Lost Word and we are charged to be the searchers.
I hope this ignites some increase interest in the Holy Saints John and causes some further research from anyone who reads this. I also hope it make the observance of Saint Johns Day more poignant for Masons. I know it has for me.
Here is the web site much of this material came from:
The Holy Saints JohnAt the bottom of the page on this site is the list of referances for the matieral posted.
At the Sioux City Scottish Rite is a portrait of the Holy Saints John on display for anyone to enjoy viewing. Here is a photo of it:
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