A Masonic Medal?

[coastie]

It was suggested that this medal/order was Masonic in nature, but as a Mason here in the US I have never encountered such an item. Any of my British brothers care to shed some light?

Edited September 19, 2005 by coastie

[bigjarofwasps]

Lovely piece whatever it is?

[coastie]

Lovely piece whatever it is?

That's what I thought, a very deep cobalt blue color.

[coastie]

This one has really pricked my curiosity...Thought I seen this somewhere before but blowed if I can track it down...The Lions and Crown suggested maybe a royal order...Still looking, the widening net of contacts will eventually nail it.

I hope, so it's too pretty to be just a trinket of some sort.

[bengullion]

but it appears this is an ultra secretive Catholic orientated society.

I though Catholics did not as a rule join freemasonary ?

[coastie]

I though Catholics did not as a rule join freemasonary ?

As a rule Catholics are forbidden by the Church to join but they are not excluded by the Masons to join.

The Catholics here in the U.S. have the Knights of Columbus which is styled after the Masonic Blue lodge and Knights Templar I don't know if it is in other countries or not.

A little off the subject but since Masons are the oldest Fraternity (continuous) most of todays Fraternal originizations borrow rituals from the masons, even I'm told that the Morman church it rituals borrow hwavily from Masons. It's founder Joesph Smith was a Mason and is was speculated that one of the reasons he was killed was because he had revealed some of the rituals of Masonry.

The mystery of this 'Order' continues.

[coastie]

Hey Kgard I can see why you dropped what you were doing. It's hard to imagine that's how people felt until recently.

But keep in mind that the Knights of Malta were different from the early Templars. The Templars were once the "defenders of the faith" until they got too powerful (and perhaps corrupt) for their own good and was destroyed by the Catholic Church. The Knight's of Saint John I believe is tied to the Knights of Malta their Order is similiar with a Black ribbon.

The Knights Templar of today is just a showy fraternal organization with no political clout/power and has no link to the Catholic Church. Likewise the Knights of Malta today is just a fancy society that does charitable works and is not some secretive society bent on destroying any and all opposition to Catholicism.

The Order of the Knights of Malta is actually a white Maltese cross not a blue one and depending which country there may be different symbols in the crotch of each arm examples: Flur de les, lions etc. The shape and style of my little 'Order" is like a Malta order the color is all wrong.

Edited December 7, 2005 by coastie

[Nick]

That crown looks very much like a Kings crown to me Edward VII to George VI ?

[coastie]

That crown looks very much like a Kings crown to me Edward VII to George VI ?

That's what I thought and with the rules of Freemasonry where the Masonic Jewels are more valuable than the 'Star or Garter' a crown would be out of place