What is the significance of the Order of the Secret Monitor?

The Order of the Secret Monitor is devoted to the practical elucidation of brotherly love, mutual help, and unfaltering friendship that adversity cannot betray 12. Its moral instruction and principles are drawn from the biblical account of David and Jonathan recorded in the First Book of Samuel 1.

Emerging in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century, the degree was introduced to reinforce personal fellowship and mutual support as Freemasonry expanded 2. It traces its lineage to earlier side degrees and European brotherhoods, such as the eighteenth-century Dutch Order of Jonathan and David 1. Historically conferred with minimal ceremony on any Master Mason, it served primarily as a practical mechanism for mutual aid 12.

A defining feature of the Order's working is the placement of every member under the care of an officer who acts as an intender, tasked with maintaining regular contact between meetings, reporting on the brother's welfare, and offering direct assistance should difficulties arise 2.

Structurally, the system consists of two degrees, with seven degrees of the Scarlet Cord attached under its dedicated Grand Council 2. It has also been worked or incorporated within other bodies, including the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees in both England and the United States, as well as the Sovereign College in America 131.