The Grand Orient de France (GODF) is the largest of several Masonic organizations in France and the oldest in Continental Europe. It was formed out of the older Grand Lodge of France in 1773, and briefly absorbed the rump of the older body in 1799, allowing it to date its foundation to 1728 or 1733. It is generally considered to be the mother lodge of traditional Liberal, or Continental Freemasonry.
Read more about Grand Orient De France: Relationship With Other Jurisdictions, GODF Lodges Outside France
Famous quotes containing the words grand, orient and/or france:
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Ask me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty’s orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
Ask me no more whither do stray
The golden atoms of the day;
For in pure love heaven did prepare
Those powders to enrich your hair.”
—Thomas Carew (1589–1639)
“The moment Germany rises as a great power, France gains a new importance as a cultural power.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)