February - Scottish Rite

Canada Post issued a setenant
pair of stamps in October
2002 to honor two
events in the history of
communications technology.
One pictures Bro.
Sandford Fleming who
initiated the Pacific Cable
project that linked the
British Empire. The other
pictures Guglielmo Marconi.
Bro. Fleming was initiated
in St. Andrew’s
Lodge No. 16, G.R.C.,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
in May 1854 and passed in
November of that year.
There are no further
records of his participation
in the lodge bylaws or
minutes.
Born in January 1827 in
Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Bro.
Fleming was educated in
that country and moved to
Canada in 1845. At the age
of 21 he developed a prototype
for an in-line roller
skate and later designed
Canada’s first adhesive
postage stamp — the
Three-Penny Beaver which
was released in 1851. His
engineering accomplishments
were many and impressive:
chief engineer for
the construction of the
Inter-colonial Railway
spanning Canada from the
Atlantic to the Pacific; establishment
of the present
system of Universal Standard
Time and the all-
British expanded telegraph
route. He was knighted by
Queen Victoria in 1897 and
died in July 1915 in Halifax,
Nova Scotia.
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Felicien Rops, a Belgian
artist of Hungarian ancestry,
was born at Namur,
Belgium, 35 miles southeast
of Brussels in 1833 and
spent most of his childhood
there. He began his art
studies in Brussels.
After inheriting quite a
fortune, he squandered it
all and was forced to make
his living with his lithographs
and caricatures. He
became much sought after
as a designer and illustrator
of books. In 1874 he relocated
to Paris and lived
there until his death in
1898, devoting himself to illustrating
books.
Bro. Felicien Rops was a
member of the Lodge La
Bonne Amitié in Namur,
Belgium; he received his
degrees in 1862. His caricature
is pictured on a Belgian
stamp issued in 1974.
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The latest nation to
issue a postage stamp
to honor the Masonic
Fraternity is Uruguay.
No stranger to the
process, this is the second
Masonic stamp issued
by this South
American nation to honor
Masonry. Shown here, it
was issued in November
2006 to commemorate the
150th anniversary of Masonry
in Uruguay.
✤ ✤ ✤
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenorio
Salvatore Cherubini
was born in Florence, Italy,
September 1760. He was
taught by his father who
was an orchestra member
in the Pergola Theater in
Florence. Through the generosity
of the Grand Duke
of Tuscany, he was able to
study at Bologna under
Guiseppi Sarti (another
Mason) for four years. His
first opera success was
“Armida” in 1782.
He traveled to London in
1784 and settled in Paris
the next year where he
taught at the Conservatory
becoming professor and
later director. He spent
most of his life in Paris and
is considered a dominant
figure in the development
of French opera. Beethoven
held him in high esteem
and Napoleon I made him
Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor.
After
1800 he
wrote
mostly
church
music. He
died in
Paris in
March 1842.
Bro. Cherubini was made
a Mason in the Lodge Saint
Jean de Jerusalem under
the jurisdiction of the
Grand Orient of France. He
is also believed to have
Robert A. Domingue is secretary for
St. Matthew’s Lodge, Andover, MA, and
editor of The Philatelic Freemason.
been a member of the
Lodge Olympique for
which he wrote a cantata
“L’Alliance de la Musique à
la Maconnerie” in 1786. He
is pictured on a stamp issued
by Italy in June 1977.
✤ ✤ ✤
Bro. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, the thirty-second
president of the United
States serving from 1933 to
his death in 1945, needs no
introduction. He was born
at Hyde Park, NY, on Jan.
30, 1882 and died suddenly
in Warm Springs, GA, April
12, 1945. He has been pictured
on many stamps issued
by several countries
around the world — including
this Cook Islands
release of 1982 which
shows him relaxing at his
favorite hobby.
Bro. Roosevelt received
his degrees in 1911 in Holland
Lodge No. 8, New
York, NY. Stansbury Lodge
No. 24, Washington, D.C.,
made him an honorary
member Nov. 21, 1919,
when he officiated at the
Masonic laying of the cornerstone
of its temple. He
attended Architect Lodge
No. 519, New York, NY, on
Feb. 17, 1933, to raise his
son Elliot to the Sublime
Degree and made an address
in which he stressed
the importance of Masonic
principles to this nation
and his faith in the Americanism
of the ancient craft.
FEBRUARY 2007 / THE NORTHERN LIGHT 21