The Holy Saints John
and The Masons

By Dean N. Goranson

For the longest time after being made a 
Mason in Ohio, I remained puzzled by 
questions about the Holy Saints John as
well as the Lodge of the Holy Saints John
at Jerusalem. I went through the chairs 
in my home Lodge, Edgerton Lodge No. 
357. There I conferred all the degrees 
and gave the lectures, yet I didn't find 
the pieces to the puzzle. Then fate re-
moved me to Indiana, since I was still a 
young engineer by profession. Here I 
became a member of Angola Lodge No. 
236. Again, I went through the chairs 
and, as Worshipful Master, conferred all 
the degrees and gave the lectures and 
charges; and again, I didn't find the 
pieces to the puzzle. I then, after more 
than 25 years of perplexity, resolved to 
make an objective search into the Ma-
sonic aspects of ancient history, a deter-
mined search to obtain and present the 
facts of the matter, regardless of personal 
feelings and opinions.
Historically speculative Freemasonry, 
a remarkable technique for building man 
into a spiritual temple, is a direct out-
growth of medieval operative Freema-
sonry, a remarkable technique for tem-
poral building; a remarkable technique 
that embodied the use of Guild Crafts. 
Guilds existed from the late Roman Em-
pire times until about 1700 A.D., a pe-
riod of approximately 1400 years. 
Throughout this span of time, the uni-
versal Christian church was the domi-
nant force in western culture and civili-
zation.
The universal Christian church in the 
first place was erected to "God" and 
dedicated to John the Baptist and John 
the Evangelist. Guilds operated under 
the auspices of the church and the church 
in turn appointed and assigned a patron 
saint for each Guild. (A patron by defi-
nition is a supporter and protector--in 
this case a patron saint is a spiritual 
supporter and protector for the Guild.) 
Guilds obligated their members by a 
sworn oath of allegiance to the Guild, as 
well as to the church; to profess a belief 
in "God" and the immortality of the 
soul; to provide for decent burial of the 
dead and to care for the widow and or-
phan; and last but not least, to work at 
their skills at rates of pay or compensa-
tion not less than those established by the 
Guild.
Systems of medieval freemen builders 
(operative Freemasons) which embodied 
a variety of Guild Crafts were unre-
stricted in their movements from bisho-
pric to bishopric. These systems erected 
the castles, the abbeys and the gothic 
cathedrals across central Europe and the 
British Isles. A bishopric was a walled 
city-state ruled by a bishop who was 
equally responsible to the reigning 
monarch of the time and to the pope in 
Rome. These systems of freemen 
builders, labeled by modern civilization 
as medieval operative Freemasons, 
reached their pinnacle of prominence by 
1400 A.D.
The printing press was invented about 
1453 A.D. Lessons of life and morality 
formerly taught by means of architecture 
were now taught by the printed word--a 
much simpler and cheaper method. 
Thus began the decline of systems of 
medieval operative Freemasons. About 
70 years later a doctrinal cleavage 
developed in the universal church and a 
Catholic priest by the name of Martin 
Luther introduced a new form of Chris-
tian religious practice called protestan-
tism--putting religious observance and 
organization under local control. The
cleavage ushered in the period of the
Reformation and marks the beginning of 
the steep decline of operative Freema-
sonry.
It was in England, in an effort to stem 
the decline, that a few operative Lodges 
began to admit a sprinkling of sympa-
thetic influential intellectuals called ac-
cepted Masons. It was hoped that the ef-
fort would promote and reestablish the 
medieval operative art of freemen 
(Freemason) builders. Inadvertently, 
that effort gave birth to Speculative Ma-
sonry within the operative system and 
simultaneously started the change-over. 
The change-over from operative to 
speculative took approximately 200 
years and culminated in the formation of 
the 1717 Premier London Mother 
Grand Lodge. This 200 year change-
over period is called by historians a Ma-
sonic Metamorphic Time span.
Meanwhile, the Pope in Rome began to
excommunicate large segments of Eng-
lish, German and Scandinavian socie-
ties, societies engaged in the protestant 
from of Christianity. Again, it was in 
England near the midpoint of the 
metamorphosis that Lodges began to 
rededicate themselves to St. John the 
Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, as 
well as to adopt the feast days honoring 
those saints. The earliest rededication 
occurs in 1598. Since these Lodges were 
commencing by 1600 to have quite a few 
Accepted Masons on their rolls, some of 
whom were prominent protestant theo-
logians, and since they no longer bore 
any allegiance to the universal church, 
they were entirely free to rededicate with 
impunity. The feast days for the Holy 
Saints John originated in the early years 
of the universal church which in turn had 
copied it from the Roman and Greek 
pagan festivals of light to celebrate the 
longest and shortest days of the year. The 
church made the festivals a sacred obser-
vance and dedicated the longest day at 
the summer solstice to St. John the Bap-
tist while dedicating the shortest day at 
the winter solstice to St. John the Evan-
gelist--thus is the practice of dedication 
of Lodges to the Holy Saints John as well
as the origination of the feast days into a 
form of collation to honor these saints.
Late in the metamorphic period, about 
1690, the English monarch was busy re-
building the city of London which had 
suffered a great conflagration--a fire 
that had consumed almost every wooden 
structure in the city. The king issued a 
decree that all building from henceforth 
must be done in stone--a fire resistant 
practice. To provide for architectural 
harmony and to enforce the decree, the 
king retained an architect in his court by 
the name of Sir Christopher Wren. Wren 
was also designated to be the Grand 
Master Architect to erect the new St. 
Pauls Cathedral. This cathedral marked 
the last great edifice to be built by the use 
of medieval operative masonry. It took 
approximately thirty years to complete 
the project and several London Lodges 
were employed in the process. Four 
operative lodges present and working on 
the cathedral were led by the "Lodge of 
Antiquity" to form the Premier London 
Mother Grand Lodge of Speculative 
Masons at the festival of John the Baptist 
held at the Goose and Grid Iron Ale 
House in St. Pauls Church yard in 1717. 
The formation confirmed in perpetuity 
Speculative Masonry with all its rites, 
forms, ceremonies and feast days. Two 
prominent protestant theologians and 
members of "Antiquity Lodge" were 
the prime movers to form the Grand 
Lodge: one was Dr. Desaguilers who 
served as the chief architect and the other 
was Doctor Anderson who provided the 
first constitutions. Shortly afterward 
another prominent printer and journal-
ist, named Wm. Preston and also a 
"Lodge of Antiquity" member, ar-
ranged the ceremony of acception into 
the three degree system with lectures and 
charges pretty much as we know them 
today.

In 1733, an early Grand Master named
Lord Montigue deputized one Henry 
Price and issued him a warrant to estab-
lish Regular Freemasonry on the North 
American continent. Price did so by con-
stituting St. Johns Lodge at Boston, New 
England--not Massachussets. This 
Lodge was numbered 126 on the 
Premier Grand Lodge rolls and served as 
the Provincial Grand Lodge to later con-
stitute and create over 40 North Ameri-
can Lodges. Thus was the means to pre-
serve and to perpetuate to succeeding 
generations of American Freemasons 
the Premier London Mother Grand 
Lodge Masonry complete with all the 
forms, rites, ceremonies and feast days.

It remains now to explain "What is the 
Lodge of the Holy Sts. John at 
Jerusalem? " Undoubtedly, this has been 
best explained by Doctor Joseph Fort 
Newton--considered by several histori-
ans to be America's preeminent 20th 
Century Freemason. Dr. Newton said, 
"It was wholly natural for Freemasons 
of that period, being skilled craftsmen 
themselves, to imagine that St. John the 
Baptist and St. John the evangelist were 
in turn craftsmen of the highest skills; 
and since all craftsmen must surely 
belong to a Lodge somewhere, where 
else would these skilled craftsmen have 
belonged but to an ideal imaginary 
Lodge at Jerusalem. "

It's not difficult to understand Dr. 
Newton's theory when one makes a 
detailed study of one of those magnifi-
cent and noble European Gothic cathe-
drals or, better yet, visits one; for here, 
one discovers the entire New Testament 
of the Holy Bible carved and sculpted 
over the massive entry ways and frontal 
facades, cast into stained glass windows 
and artfully painted on interior frescos 
and murals. The four Gospels appear in 
art form by way of architectural instru-
mentation without the use of one printed 
word--thus the true meaning of the ear-
lier statement "that lessons of life and 
morality were taught by means of archi-
tecture before the use of the printed 
word." Craftsmen who were capable of 
creating such a magnificent and noble 
piece of art were in possession of the 
highest order of skills and intelligence 
and therefore certainly capable of im-
agining that the Holy Saints John were 
preeminent craftsmen--since their skills 
were to instill the Holy Spirit in the heart 
of mankind. It follows then that all crafts-
men must belong to a Lodge somewhere 
and considering the skills of the Holy Sts . 
John, they would have belonged to an
imaginary, ideal Lodge concerned only 
with the Holy Spirit, and at Jerusalem. 
Such a Lodge, existent only during the 
lifetime of these saints, serves as an ideal 
symbolical example for all Speculative 
Lodges and Masons to emulate.
It's no accident then, that Speculative 
Masons, engaged as they are in the 
building of man into a spiritual temple, 
should dedicate themselves to St. John 
the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist-- 
the Great Apostle of Light. It was John 
the Baptist who introduced John the 
Evangelist to Jesus. It was John the 
Evangelist who became the beloved dis-
ciple who sat at the right hand of "Jesus 
the Christ" at the Last Supper and at the 
foot of the cross at the crucification to 
receive the charge to keep Mary the 
Mother of Jesus, and to care for her as 
though she were his own. It was John the
Evangelist the zealous preacher who was 
banished by Roman rulers and exiled to 
the most desolate place called Patmos. It 
was while in exile that he composed the 
New Testament Book of Revelations.
John the Evangelist lived to be a very 
old man, and toward the end of his life, 
he served as the chief architect to com-
pose the Book of John later dubbed by 
the Christian movement as "the Gospel 
According to St. John." In closing, I 
should like to recall for you the opening 
lines of this Gospel. They are a most 
profound statement to the world in 
general and I like to think Freemasonry 
in particular. Paraphrased they are:
"In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God. All things were made by Him, 
and without Him was not anything 
made. Life was in him and that Life 
became the Light of men, and the Light 
shone in the darkness and the darkness 
overcame it not. That Word became 
flesh and dewelt among us filled with
grace and truth. "
Such is the relationship of the Masonic 
institution to the Holy Sts. John at 
Jerusalem.
References
1 The Holy Bible, King James Version .
2 The Encyclopcdia Britacanica, Eleventh Edition.
3. T. Walter Wallbank and Alastair Taylor, Civi-
lization Past and Present
4. Kenneth Clark, Keeper of the Dept. of Fine Arts
at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, 
1931-1933 Civilization
5. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents--
Travels and Explinations of the Jesuit Missionarics in
New France 1610-1791
6. Joel D. Steele, PhD, and Esther B. Steele,
Lit.D. (Barnes Historical Series), A Brief History
of thc Unitcd States, 1871
7. Henry Wilson Coil, Coil 's Masonic Encyclopcdia 
8. Missouri Lodge of Research, Colonial Freema-
sonry
9. Joseph Fort Newton, The Builders

