Contribuţii la istoria francmasoneriei din Banat / Contributions to the History of Freemasonry from Banat.

According to the information provided by the historian, Ludwig Aigner/Lajos Abafi (1840–1909), born in a locality from Banat, Iecea Mare, the first freemasons’ lodge from Banat, named Zu den drei weißen Lilien (At the three white lilies), was founded by a baron, Maximilian Josef Linden (1736–1801) who, known by freemasons as Ardaxanes Linniphoen Mimichemen, had already acted in the Viennese lodges Zur Hoffnung and Zur gekrönte Hoffnung. Besides the Viennese connections set up in the lodge of Rosicrucians from Timișoara there were also some local personalities such as the Orthodox bishop of Arad, Petru Petrovici (1733–1780), the canonic from Cenad, Vuko Branko de Pal (Vuco-Brancovici Paul, 1725–1798), the abbot from Bezdin, Gherasim Adamovici (1733–1794) subsequent Orthodox bishop of Transylvania, Iosif Ioanovici Şacabent (the Orthodox bishop of Vârşeţ between 1786 and 1804). These connections brought the people living in Banat closer to the Jacobin movement from Hungary in 1795, run by Ignác Martinovics. There is a new phase of the masonic activity in Banat, which begins after the reestablishment of the Ioanit lodge from Timișoara, known as Zu den drei weißen Lilien, on April 3, 1868. After 1868, there were some other lodges such as Hunyady (1872–1876) and Losonczy (1899–1919; after1923, Loja Pax) from Timișoara, Concordia from Lipova (1871–1883), Kosmos (1870–1878) and Glückauf zu den drei Schlägeln in Oravița (1871–1878), Irenea from Caransebeș (1882–1894), Petőfi from Aradul Nou (1871) and Loja Dél in Lugoj (1903–1918). The lodges’ members played a special role in the cultural and civic activities in these localities. In Banat, besides the already mentioned lodges there were: Zur Wahrheit lodge from Reșița, founded in 1874, Egalitas from Vârşeţ, in 1870, Fels der Warheit from Biserica Albă, in 1873, Vaskapu Kör from Orșova, Stella Orientalis from Panciova, in 1890 and Thales from Becicherecul Mare. We don’t own any information regarding the activity of these lodges. Besides the already specified lodges there were very many people from Banat, especially intellectuals and students, who had acted in the lodges from Hungary.The collections of the Museum of Banat from Timişoara comprise several masonic objects mostly originating in the property of a baron, János Károly Hiller de Butin (1748–1819).