Holy lodge of st jones

The title "Lodge of Saint John" or "Holy Lodge of Saint John" historically designates any regular, legally constituted lodge of Craft Masonry 1. In the earliest catechisms of the eighteenth century, a Mason identified his origin through the traditional ritual formula: "I hail from the Lodge of Saint John" 1.

This designation stems from the tradition of dedicating Craft lodges to Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, collectively known in Masonry as the Saints John 1. According to traditional Masonic lectures, lodges were dedicated to King Solomon from the building of the First Temple until the Babylonian captivity, and later to Zerubbabel during the construction of the Second Temple 1. Under the Christian dispensation, patronage passed first to Saint John the Baptist and subsequently to Saint John the Evangelist 1. Masonic tradition asserts that Saint John the Evangelist agreed to act as Grand Master in his advanced age, completing by his learning what the Baptist had begun by his zeal, thereby establishing the two saints as parallel lines in Masonic symbolism 1. While Mackey notes that these accounts lack historical authenticity, the practice of dedicating lodges to the Saints John became established usage 1.

An alternative explanation developed during the eighteenth century attempted to link the title to the Crusades, claiming that Masons shared their mysteries with the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, though this was largely an endeavor to connect Craft Masonry to chivalric systems 1. In modern practice, hailing from a Lodge of Saint John remains a symbolic assertion that a Mason belongs to a regular lodge working within this established tradition 1.