CHAIN OF UNION
We are visiting this annual conference
as one of a youngest lodge of the chain. The Europa Akáca a Mátraalján –
ACATIAE EUROPEAE IN SINU MATRÀ is the youngest and one of oldest lodge
at the same time in Hungary. The first lodge was established in 1749.
The Freemasons started to work in profane world in an abbey of
Franciscan in the baroque age. The Habsburgs had forbidden every kind of
convent, Franciscans too. The catholic bishop from Eger gave a helping
hand to the Franciscans. He had given them the right to celebrate mass,
so they could operate further. (So it is not surprising, then Empress
Maria Theresa is “the Queen of the Night” in the opera Magic Flute by
Mozart). The supporter of Franciscans was the Bishop from Eger
Eszterházy Károly, whose brother was prince Eszterházy, who worked at
the lodge of Born Ignác in the town of emperor, Vienna.
The
Egriens work at our lodge nowadays, too. Joseph Haydn was conductor and
compositor at the emperor house for 40 years. I have attached a replica
of the panting that was painted in 1785, in Vienna. Eszterházy had
shaken the hands of the initiated and covered eyes brothers at the
center of the painting. The men with pony tail hair in long brown coat
are Joseph Haydn. The media treats the painter as unknown, but he is our
brother Ignaz Unterberger. The painting was painted in 1785. The
Freemasonry Franciscans arrived to Gyöngyös in 1782. They were of French
nationality. They had stayed in the abbey till 1786. We do not know
them name by name, but we hope to find documentations related to them
the next years. They have celebrated the first freemasonry work. The
Bishop Eszterházy Károly who saved the operation of Franciscans had made
several freemasonry works and donated them. His membership was not
mentioned; otherwise he would become excommunicated by the church.
The other lodge - the profane one,
operated in the castle of Orczy Lőrinc (from 1781), but finally it moved
to the earl’s wine cellar, near in Farkasmály, and they had worked from
1784 on. Our lodge is operated 30 meters from that cellar. We do not
have proof, that the two lodges knew about each other or worked
together, but we definitely know the Franciscans were invited by Orczy
and Freemason brothers in the cellar at Farkasmály.At the beginning of
20 century, between 1906 and 1920, a lodge was operational and named
Akác a Mátraalján (Acatia under the Matra hill). The
Freemasonry was forbidden in 1920, so our brothers worked in secret.
The downtown of Gyöngyös was burnt totally by a great fire in 1917. The
reconstruction was led by brothers. Most of the leaders were our
brothers - the mayor, the main leader of the reconstruction, the fonder
of the local fire brigade and the many of others. 74 brothers worked at
the lodge in that time. These forefathers engage hard work to the third -
let me say - forth lodge, because two of them were operated
simultaneously in baroque age. Our lodge was founded by 9 brothers, now
14 of us work. We explore and process as an exploratory lodge not only
the Freemasonry, but the culture of micro region Mátralja also.
The Franciscans moved The Supporter
Center for Children with Autism into the half of their abbey. They nurse
and teach 35 children – as much as they can - who are not affiliated
into any other Hungarian institute because of serious status of their
autism. The circumstances are demonstrated well, with the fact that 35
patients are nursed by 40 employees. We donated them the computers
(previously they had only one). Finally they can plan now a complex and
difficult drug (medicine) dosage program at the clinic, thanks to the
computers donated by us. One of the kids is a genius on the computers
(he is not able to communicate in any other way, only via computer). We
brought the computer to him too. Analyzing the situation, we support the
institute for years according to their demand. We help several schools
in the town with the publications, prepared by us, which are used on
field of polytechnic and linguistic. Hungary is in the middle of
alteration circumstances. Based on our former calculation, 8-10 years
are necessary to show the first results of our work in Gyöngyös, due to
our agenda. It is our pleasure – to be here at the Conference of the
European Lodges and the visiting of the "Europe" Lodges in the future.
Our code word is SUCCISA VIRESCIT, the
carved tree gets green again.Meanwhile we understand the common acacia,
because the Freemasonry was forbidden and pursued for half of the
century not only in Hungary, but around us also. We wish the huge
obstacles will not be a part of our common future again, and the
European Breather chain get stronger continuously.
Tibor E.
W\M\ of Lodge Europa Akaca a Matraaljan, Or\Gyongyos
W\M\ of Lodge Europa Akaca a Matraaljan, Or\Gyongyos
Forrás: Előadás az Európa páholyok 4. Nemzetközi Szimpóziumán: http://www.fmsne.wbd.ro/chain-of-union-egly