The Grand Lodge of Slovenia

REVIVAL OF MASONRY IN SLOVENIA AFTER 1991

After 13 April 1941, when the Masonic Lodge "Valentin Vodnik", consisting of 18 active members, ceased to operate, there was no organized Masonic activity in Slovenia. The first Masons in Slovenia after the World War II were three Brethren who have been accepted into the Lodge Pobratimthat, in 1991, worked in Belgrade in the frame of the Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia.

When Yugoslavia fell apart, and Slovenia and Croatia became internationally recognized countries, the deputy Lodge Illyria has been established in Vienna on 21 March 1992. It operated under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Austria with the objective to introduce Masonry to Slovenia. The first Worshipful Master of the Lodge Illyria was Brother Čedo Kirchner who, in the meantime, already went to the Eternal East.

The Lodge worked, jointly for Slovenia and Croatia, in Temples in Klagenfurt and Graz, and occasionally also in Vienna. On 26 September 1992 the Lodge had its first meeting in Ljubljana.

Both the Slovenian and Croatian Brethren had to enjoy the hospitality of Temples in Austria; we from Slovenia worked mainly in Klagenfurt, and our Croatian Brethren mainly in Graz. Separated work, and, first of all, the growing number of Brethren resulted in the necessity of dividing the Deputy Lodge Illyria into two parts respectively of founding a separate Deputy Lodge for Slovenia. On 18 December 1993 a Deputy Lodge has been founded for the Slovenian Brethren, while the Croatian Brethren continued to work in the Deputy Lodge Illyria.

One of the typical features of the Deputy Lodge was that it often worked bilingually (Slovenian-German), since Brethren from Slovenia worked together with their Austrian Brethren. As a matter of fact, the Deputy Lodge Illyria has already worked in this way, sometimes even in three languages, German, Slovenian and Croatian. In this connection it has to be mentioned that there was no Masonic literature available when we started so that everything had to be translated into Slovenian language. Nevertheless, we find it extremely important to be able to work in several languages, and have introduced this practice also into the Lodge Quatuor Coronati, when it hosts Brethren from Austria, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia.

Slovenia has a reasonably long Masonic tradition, though in the period fromWorld War II till 1991, Masonry was non existent in our country. Being the legitimate successor to the French-Illyrian Lodge "The Friends of the Roman King and Napoleon", founded in Ljubljana in 1812, and to the Lodge "Valentin Vodnik" that worked in Ljubljana till 1941 our organisation is now offcially registered with the authorities of the Republic of Slovenia.

The number of Slovenian Brethren who have embraced the Masonic ideas has quickly grown to such a level that all the conditions were met to found the first Grand Lodge in the entire history of Slovenia. On 16 October 1999 the Grand Lodge of Austria brought the Light to the Grand Lodge of Slovenia. When the first Slovenian Grand Master was o.ered the hammer, the Masons of Slovenia started their independent Masonic life.