The two Saints John were not actually member of the Masonic Fraternity, But they have been called the patrons of the fraternity down through the ages, because they both exemplified the principles of Freemasonry in their daily lives, by their deeds and actions. St. John the Baptist was a humble man, a plain man who held, above all, his obligation to God and man, and with the almost unbelievable steadfastness, met martyrdom. St. John, Evangelist, was constantly admonishing the cultivation of brother love. Of all the gospels, The of St. John is the most Masonic, for the central theme is Light. It portrays Jesus as “The Light of the World.†(John 1:1-15)
We celebrate the feast days of the Holy Saints John but we should pause a few minutes to consider the history and background of this celebration.
Saint John the Baptist: John the Baptist who was the cousin of Jesus Christ, is spoken of in The Great Light as being ‘’A voice crying in the wilderness,â€(John 1:23) and whose purpose was to, “Prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight.’’(Luke 3:4) He was called the Baptist because he preached and baptized believers in the river Jordan (John 1:28)(Mark1:5)He lived a very simple life(Mark 1:6) but powerful and gravely devout. He preached single-minded righteous living and change in character (Mark 1:4). His message was that one must live in a holy manner and deviating from this was not acceptable (Luke 3:7-11). He was devoted to Jesus even until death when he was imprisoned and beheaded by King Herod (.Mark 6:17-29) He was indeed a very important man as shown in the four Gospels, the Books of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John who all describes him with the exact same terminology, as this is extremely rare. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus stated himself that, “Among them that are born of women, there has not risen any greater than John the Baptist.’’(Matt 11:11) A great man indeed! It is clear why masons do hold him in such esteem because his heroism, fidelity and integrity which echoed the legend such as of Hiram Abif, which gives us more insight into his choice as a Patron Saint of the Masonic Order!
Saint John the Evangelist: Saint John to an unnamedâ€Beloved Disciple†the Evangelist was one of Christ’s original twelve apostles. St. John the Evangelist was only one out of the apostles to live into old age. In the two Gospels the Brothers John & James are often called after their father “the son of Zebedee’’ and received from Christ the honorable title of Boanerges, which is being interpreted “the son of thunder(Mark 3:17) He a had a prominent position in the drawn that John was the younger of the two brothers. Peter, James and He were the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:37), of the Transfiguration Matt 17:1), and of the Agony in Gethsemane(Matt 26:37). Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make preparation for the last Supper (Luke 22:8). At the Supper itself his place was next to Christ on whose breast he leaned (John 13:23, 25).He was also the “other disciple’’ who with Peter followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high priest (John 18:15. He remained alone near his beloved Master at the foot of the Cross on Calvary with the mother of Jesus and the pious women, and took the desolate Mother into his care as the last legacy of Christ (John 19:25-27). After the Resurrection John with Peter was the first of the disciples to hasten to the grave and he was the first to believe that Christ had truly risen (John 20:2-10) and there are more accounts of what Saint John had done but we get the idea that he was important to masonry as well. Nowhere else in the Bible since the beginning of Genesis Familiar to all Freemasons is the concept of light so inextricably entwined with the idea of divine spirit. As we progress through higher degrees the concept of the Word, Light and the Divine as inseparable parts of the whole Creation become of primary importance. John the Evangelist leads us forward in that direction.