What is Red Cross of Constantine ?

The historical tradition of the Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine centers on Emperor Constantine's vision of a heavenly pillar of light in the form of a cross, directing his soldiers to place a red cross on their armor, as Mark Masons' Hall records. To be eligible for admission, prospective candidates must be Master Masons in the Craft, Royal Arch Masons, and Trinitarian Christians, as Mark Masons' Hall notes.

Early accounts attribute the resuscitation of the Red Cross, Holy Sepulchre, and St. John degrees in England to the late seventeenth century, where the Abbé Guistiniani gathered and preserved their rituals 1. Baron von Hund maintained that the Knights of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine were largely responsible for the rapid spread of Freemasonry across continental Europe 1. In 1865, the Order was reorganized in England and its ceremonies were rewritten, as Mark Masons' Hall states.

In terms of governance, the Grand Conclave of the Red Cross of Constantine convenes in an annual assembly, unlike the quarterly communications of Craft Grand Lodges or Royal Arch Grand Chapters 2. Today, the Order is administered by the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, as Mark Masons' Hall indicates.

The initial ceremony consists of the candidate's admission, obligation, and installation as a Knight-Companion of the Red Cross of Constantine, as Mark Masons' Hall outlines. Advancement to the executive chairs of Viceroy and Sovereign involves two additional chair degrees: Priest-Mason, conferred in a College of Priests-Mason, and Prince-Mason, worked within a Senate of Princes-Mason, as Mark Masons' Hall notes. Two appendant orders are also associated with the system: the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, which turns on St. Helena's discovery of the True Cross, and the Knight of St. John the Evangelist, which relates to an attempt to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, as Mark Masons' Hall explains.