Freemasonry in Malta
[1] Freemasonry in Malta began in 1730 when "Parfait Harmonie", the first warranted lodge, was formed under the Marseilles (France) masonic jurisdiction.
[3] Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca was a freemason,[4] and others (including Grand Master De Rohan) are reported also to have been freemasons, and influential in the spread of freemasonry in Malta.
This lodge noted in its petition that the most important members of the Order of St. John ranked amongst its membership.
In 1811, they established a Masonic lodge named Les Amis en Captivite under a warrant from Marseilles.
In that same year, the lodge was attacked by rioters, following exhortations from priests that the freemasons were responsible for the prevailing drought and disease stricken horses.
Following repatriation of the bulk of prisoners between April and August 1814, the lodge members were essentially non-French.
Although some evidence has been presented to suggest that Napoleon Bonaparte was a Freemason, including a masonic apron said to have been his, and annotated with his name and masonic dates, now owned by Columbia Lodge No 2397 (London), there remains considerable uncertainty over the question.
Several French sources cite similar accounts of his initiation into freemasonry in Malta in 1798 in a French Regimental Lodge, probably Army Philadelphe Lodge, but the earliest of these sources dates to some years after the events described, and there is no extant primary source, such as a Lodge minute book or attendance register.
The lodge’s warrant was signed by the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, on 27 November 1815.
By 1900 the number of lodges had increased to seven, with a total of 584 members; by 1919 there were 1,484 freemasons in Malta under the UGLE constitution.
In 1984, the English District Grand Lodge of Malta, having been relocated to England, was dissolved.
On 5 September 2004, at a time of Maltese nationalist celebrations marking 40 years of Maltese independence, and 25 years since the closure of the British naval base, and in anticipation of the admission of Malta into the European Union, three of the four Irish Constitution lodges met together and resolved to form themselves into the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Malta.
[8] The effect of having a Grand Lodge is that SGLoM has become the sovereign Masonic body for the Maltese islands, having inherent power and authority to form a Constitution as its fundamental law, and subject only to the Ancient Landmarks of Freemasonry to enact laws for its own government and that of its subordinate Lodges.
As in England, Royal Arch Chapters may be formed in Malta (with the consent of the Grand Master) and each such Chapter must be attached to a warranted Lodge, and bear the same name and number as that lodge.
The Grand Lodge of Malta attracted newspaper headlines when Dr David Gatt (a Grand Chancellor of the body) was arrested by Maltese police and charged with a range of serious organised crime offences.
