The Grand Orient of Portugal (Grande Oriente Lusitano) is a symbolic Masonic Obedience founded in 1802, thus being the oldest Portuguese Masonic Obedience. Its first Grand Master was Sebastião José de São Paio de Melo e Castro Lusignan, grandson of the first Marquis of Pombal, and his symbolic name was Egas Moniz.
The Grand Orient of Portugal belongs to the Masonic liberal current, proclaiming the absolute liberty of conscience and adogmatism.
History It was seen as a driving force in the anti-clericalism of the liberals.By the 1830s the Masons had become, by and large, the principal promoters of anticlericalism. Chapter 22 Portugal under the Nineteenth-Century Constitutional Monarchy, Stanley G. Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. 2 In 1921, it became a founding member of the International Masonic Association in alliance with the Grand Orient of France, Grand Orient of Belgium, Grand Lodge Alpina of Switzerland and the Grand Orient of Italy, amongst many others.
Opposing every form of oppression, the Grande Oriente Lusitano has faced throughout its history many moments of fierce persecution by the most conservative and reactionary wings of society. Amongst these moments, the prohibition during the Estado Novo dictatorship (law nº1901 dated May 13, 1935, proposed by José Cabral who had recently joined the single state-ruled party União Nacional, National Union, after leaving the Portuguese integralists and the national-syndicalists leadered by Francisco Rolão Preto) which forced Portuguese freemasons into clandestinity and often prison and political exile.
Fernando Pessoa, the renowned Portuguese poet, who assumed himself as a profane (or non-mason) published an article in Diário de Lisboa (Lisbon Daily, a daily newspaper) defending Freemasonry and specifically the Grande Oriente Lusitano. During clandestinity (1935-1974), the Grande Oriente Lusitano had its buildings confiscated and the Masonic Palace, in center Lisbon, occupied by the Legião Portuguesa (Portuguese Legion, a para-military political force created for the "defense of the State").
The Revolution of the Carnations on April 25, 1974 revoked law nº1901 and the Grande Oriente Lusitano could once more see the light of day and have its buildings returned.
Rites Under the auspices of the Grande Oriente Lusitano there are lodges of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and of the French Rite. These Rites are administered by the respective philosophical Potences with which the Grande Oriente Lusitano has a treaty to confer the symbolic degrees: Supreme Council of the Grand Inspector-General of the 33rd Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for Portugal and its jurisdiction Sovereign Grand Chapter of the Cavaliers Rose-Croix - Grand Chapter General of the French Rite of Portugal
Grémio Lusitano The three potencies are represented in civil society through the Grémio Lusitano, a cultural, recreational and philanthropic society whose headquarters are situated at the Rua do Grémio Lusitano, number 25, in Lisbon. This building, the Masonic Palace, also hosts the Portuguese Masonic Museum, considered by many as one of the best of its kind in Europe. The Museum is open to the public.
Grand Masters 1804 – 1809 – Sebastião de Sampaio de Melo e Castro 1809 – 1816 – Fernando Romão da Costa Ataíde e Teive de Sousa Coutinho 1816 – 1817 – Gomes Freire de Andrade e Castro 1820 – 1821 – João Vicente Pimentel Maldonado (interim) 1821 – 1823 – João da Cunha Souto Maior 1823 – 1839 – José da Silva Carvalho 1839 – 1841 – Manuel Gonçalves de Miranda 1841 – 1841 – Bartolomeu dos Mártires Dias e Sousa (interim) 1841 – 1846 – António Bernardo da Costa Cabral 1846 – 1847 – João de Deus Antunes Pinto 1847 – 1849 – António Bernardo da Costa Cabral 1849 – 1853 – Marcelino Máximo de Azevedo e Melo 1854 – 1861 – José Joaquim de Almeida Moura Coutinho 1861 – 1863 – Frederico Leão Cabreira de Brito Alvelos Drago Valente; 1863 – 1867 – Caetano Gaspar de Almeida e Noronha Portugal Camões de Albuquerque Moniz e Sousa 1867 – 1869 – José da Silva Mendes Leal 1869 – 1881 – João Inácio Francisco de Paula de Noronha 1881 – 1884 – Miguel Baptista Maciel 1884 – 1886 – José Elias Garcia 1886 – 1887 – António Augusto de Aguiar 1887 – 1889 – José Elias Garcia 1889 – 1895 – Carlos Ramiro Coutinho 1895 – 1899 – Bernardino Machado Guimarães 1899 – 1906 – Luís Augusto Ferreira de Castro 1906 – 1907 – Francisco Gomes da Silva (interim) 1907 – 1928 – Sebastião de Magalhães Lima 1928 – 1929 – Luís Augusto Curson (interim) 1929 – 1929 – António José de Almeida 1929 – 1930 – Joaquim Maria de Oliveira Simões (interim) 1930 – 1935 – José Mendes Ribeiro Norton de Matos 1935 – 1937 – Maurício Armando Martins Costa (interim) 1937 – 1937 – Filipe Inês Ferreira (interim) 1937 – 1975 – Luís Gonçalves Rebordão 1975 – 1981 – Luís Hernâni Dias Amado 1982 – 1984 – Armando Adão e Silva 1984 – 1988 – José Eduardo Simões Coimbra 1988 – 1990 – Raul de Assunção Pimenta Rego 1990 – 1993 – Ramon de la Féria 1993 – 1996 – João Rosado Correia 1996 – 2002 – Eugénio de Oliveira 2002 – 2005 – António Duarte Arnaut 2005 – 2011 – António Fernando Marques Ribeiro Reis 2011 – 2021 – Fernando Manuel Lima Valada Fernandes 2021 – present – Fernando José Correia Cabecinha
See also CLIPSAS Afonso Costa
References
External links
Grande Oriente Lusitano