Freemasonry in Colombian Independence

Bibliography:


Medellín Secreto - Ana María Cano, Ed. La Hoja 1995 - 2000


Freemasonry in Colombian Philately (Gran Logia de Colombia)


esdegrevistas.edu.co/index.php/refa/article/download/1357/1692


Carnicelli, A. (1975). Historia de la masonería colombiana, 1833-1940, Tomo I y Vol.2. Bogotá, Colombia, Luis Ángel Arango Library: Rare Books and Manuscripts Room.


General Francisco de Paula Santander, the stellar figure of our country, was always a clear our country, was always a clear Mason, but it is not known at what time he joined this society.

Time he joined this society is not known. Not even the historian of Freemasonry, Mr. Américo Carnicelli cannot certify this. What is certain is that from the moment the victorious troops of Boyacá entered the liberated troops, Santander, like most of the liberators, had already been invested with the degree of Freemason.

Santander founded the first Masonic lodge in Bogota in January 1820, under the name of Liberty of Colombia.

A rather curious event in Santander's life as a Freemason was when General José María Barreiro, commander of the Spanish troops at the Boyacá Bridge and a prisoner in the city of Bogotá, asked the native of Cucuta for mercy in the name of Freemasonry. In fact, when the Spanish leader learned that he was about to be shot, he decided to send Santander the diploma and insignia of a Freemason, asking him to spare his life because he was a brother Mason. Santander, with courage and gallantry, overcoming any kind of sentimentality, replied to his enemy that at that moment his country was more important than a Freemason.

But Santander's tenacious work in organising Masonic lodges is truly astonishing. Evidently, in 1823, as founder of the Fraternidad Bogotana Lodge No. 1, there were a total of 36 secret societies in the country in that year. All these lodges would receive, in one way or another, the influence and protection of the magnificent Grenadian.



                                   


Santander's Masonic ideals were bitterly opposed by some members of the Catholic Church, in dark times when it was claimed that Freemasonry and its members were condemned to hell itself. The exaggerated fanaticism of some priests led them to condemn, without reason, everything related to secret societies, whatever name they used. And by the strange paradoxes of life, many of the clergy, especially patriots, were linked to Freemasonry, according to Carnicelli's well-documented claims.

General Santander founded and published the newspaper "El Patriota" on Sunday 26 January 1823, in which he defended his Masonic brothers on several occasions, as when he stated that "vulgar people, women and hypocrites believe that Freemasonry is something from another world, a diabolical invention and a school of vices.

Santander, in the list of honorary members of the Supreme Council of the 33rd degree of the Western Hemisphere in New York, the name of General Santander, then President of the Republic of New Granada, appears as one of its most distinguished members.