Romanian Masons

C. A. Rosetti

C. A. Rosetti

Constantin Alexandru Rosetti (C.A. Rosetti) (2 June 1816-8 April 1885), was a Romanian Freemason, literary and political leader, born in Bucharest into a Phanariot Greek family.

In 1845, Rosetti went to Paris, where he met Alphonse de Lamartine, the patron of the Society of Romanian Students in Paris. In 1847, he married Mary Grant, the sister of the English consul to Bucharest, Effingham Grant. The consul was married to Zoia Racovita, the daughter of Alexandru Racovita; the Grant Bridge (Podul Grant) near Gara de Nord in Bucharest is named after him.

He is initiated as Freemason in a French Lodge, in 1845.

Constantin Daniel Rosenthal

Constantin Daniel Rosenthal, by Th Arion

Constantin Daniel Rosenthal (b. Pest, Hungary: Rosenthal Konstantin, 1820-July 23, 1851) was a Romanian painter, sculptor and Freemason of Hungarian birth and a 1848 revolutionary, best known for his portraits and his choice of Romanian Romantic nationalist subjects.

Born into a Jewish merchant family in Pest (part of the Austrian Empire at the time), he left the city at the age of seventeen in order to attend the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied archaeological drawing (graduating in 1839) and made his first Romanian acquaintance, the painter Ioan D. Negulici.

Ion Heliade Radulescu

Ion Heliade Radulescu, by Misu Popp

Ion Heliade Radulescu (also known as Eliad or Eliade Radulescu; January 6, 1802-April 27, 1872) was a Wallachian-born Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor, politician and Freemason. A prolific translator of foreign literature into Romanian, he was also the author of books on linguistics and history. For much of his life, Heliade Radulescu was a teacher at Saint Sava College in Bucharest, which he helped reopen. He was a founding member and first president of the Romanian Academy.

Heliade Radulescu is considered one of the foremost champions of Romanian culture from the first half of the 19th century, having first risen to prominence through his association with Gheorghe Lazar and his support of Lazar's drive for discontinuing education in Greek. Over the following decades, he had a major role in shaping the modern Romanian language, but caused controversy when he advocated the massive introduction of Italian neologisms into the Romanian lexis.

Alexandru Paleologu

Alexandru Paleologu

Alexandru Paleologu (March 14, 1919 - September 2, 2005), Mason, was a Romanian essayist, literary critic, diplomat and politician. He is the father of historian Toader Paleologu.

Paleologu was born in Bucharest, into an ancient Romanian boyar family that claimed its origins in the last dynasty (Palaiologos) that ruled the Byzantine Empire. They had moved from Lesbos Island to the Danubian Principalities at the beginning of the 18th century. Paleologu was also, through various marriages, a descendant of the Wallachian Prince Constantin Brancoveanu. Alexandru Paleologu's father, Mihail Paleologu was a lawyer and National Liberal Member of Parliament, later general secretary in the Ministries of Justice and of Finance, who was known for his association with Grigore Iunian.

Ion Minulescu

Ion Minulescu

Ion Minulescu (January 6, 1881 - April 11, 1944) was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, playwright and Mason. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor (the latter being derived from the famous diamond), he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and Parisian Bohemianism. He had a major influence on modern literature in Romania, and was among the first local poets to use free verse.

Titu Maiorescu

Titu Maiorescu

Titu Liviu Maiorescu (15 February 1840 - 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, Freemason, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century.

A member of the Conservative Party, he was Foreign Minister between 1910 and 1914 and Prime Minister of Romania from 1913 to 1914. He represented Romania at the Peace Conference in Bucharest that ended the Second Balkan War. In politics as in culture he favoured Germany over France. He opposed Romania's entry in World War I against Germany, but he nevertheless refused to collaborate with the German army after it had occupied Bucharest.

Mihail Kogalniceanu

Mihail Kogalniceanu

Mihail Kogalniceanu (September 6, 1817 - July 1, 1891) was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian, publicist and Freemason.

He became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He was several times Interior Minister under Cuza and Carol. A polymath, Kogalniceanu was one of the most influential Romanian intellectuals of his generation. Siding with the moderate liberal current for most of his lifetime, he began his political career as a collaborator of Prince Mihail Sturdza, while serving as head of the Iasi Theater and issuing several publications together with the poet Vasile Alecsandri and the activist Ion Ghica. After editing the highly influential magazine Dacia Literara and serving as a professor at Academia Mihaileana, Kogalniceanu came into conflict with the authorities over his Romantic nationalist inaugural speech of 1843. He was the ideologue of the abortive 1848 Moldavian revolution, authoring its main document, Dorintele partidei nationale din Moldova.

Alexandru G. Golescu

Alexandru G. Golescu

Alexandru G. Golescu (1819-15 August 1881), Freemason, was a Romanian politician who served as a Prime Minister of Romania in 1870 (between 14 February and 1 May).

Together with Nicolae Balcescu, Ion Ghica and Christian Tell, Golescu was a founding member of the Fratia ("Brotherhood") freemason and radical secret society in 1843, meant as opposition to Wallachian Prince Gheorghe Bibescu. He returned to Paris in 1845 to be a member of a revolutionary society of the Romanian students.

Octavian Goga

Octavian Goga

Octavian Goga (April 1, 1881-May 7, 1938) was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.

Born in Rasinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party (PNR) in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I, Goga was arrested by the Hungarian authorities. At different intervals, until the union of Romania and Transylvania in 1918, Goga took refuge in Romania, becoming active in literary and political circles. Because of his political activity in Romania, the Hungarian state sentenced him to death in absentia.

During World War I, he joined the Romanian army and took part as a soldier, in the occupation of Dobrogea.

Ion Ghica

Ion Ghica

Ion Ghica (August 12, 1816-May 7, 1897) was a Romanian revolutionary, mathematician, diplomat and twice Prime Minister of Romania (between 1866 and 1867, and between 1870 and 1871). He was a full member of the Romanian Academy and its president for four times (1876-1882, 1884-1887, 1890-1893 and 1894-1895). He was the older brother and associate of Pantazi Ghica, a prolific writer and politician.

After finishing his studies in Paris, he left for Moldavia and was involved in the Francmasonic Fratia ("Brotherhood") conspiracy of 1848, which was intended to bring about the union of Wallachia and Moldavia under one native Romanian leader, Prince Mihai Sturdza. Ion Ghica became a lecturer on mathematics at the Academy which was founded by the same Prince Sturdza in Iasi (future University of Iasi).

Syndicate content