Origin from 1870
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, whose members are known as Shriners, is a fraternal body linked to Freemasonry, historically open to Master Masons and known for its social and charitable character. It adopted a light-hearted theme drawing on romantic images of the Middle East, with distinctive red fezzes, parades, and festivities. It is best known for founding and supporting a network of hospitals for children that provide specialised medical care. Behind its playful public face it functions as an appendant Masonic organisation of fellowship and philanthropy.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginNew York City, United States 1 FounderWalter Fleming and William Florence 1 Origin of the NameThe order's Arabian Nights theme, fez headwear and Ottoman inflected imagery were adopted in the 1870s as a deliberately playful, theatrical counterpoint to the solemnity of the Masonic degrees a candidate had already completed, rather than as any claim of Middle Eastern origin, affiliation or descent. 1 Organisation
Who May BelongOpen to Master Masons in good standing Membership DetailMembership requires prior completion of the Scottish Rite's thirty second degree or the York Rite's Knight Templar order, making the Shrine an appendant body reachable only after a candidate has already finished one of Freemasonry's two higher degree systems. 1 GovernanceA single central governing body over the whole movement 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 2 Learn More
Philanthropy in a Fez
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine is the case in the fraternal world where a deliberately light-hearted body became a serious charitable institution.
A sociable order
Founded in New York in 1870 by Walter Fleming and William Florence as a more convivial body for Freemasons, the order adopted a playful theme drawn from romantic images of the Middle East, with red fezzes, parades and festivities, and was historically open to Master Masons. Behind the theatrical public face it functions as an appendant Masonic organisation of fellowship.
The hospitals
What distinguishes the Shriners from other sociable orders is the network of Shriners Hospitals for Children, established in the twentieth century, which provide specialised paediatric care, historically at no cost to families, and are the reason the order is widely known beyond Freemasonry at all. The combination, an ornamental and jocular fraternity that also runs a substantial medical charity, is the defining feature of the order, and the philanthropy rather than the fez is what has kept it prominent.
The Hospitals Are the Point
Whatever the fez and the Arabic name suggest, the Shrine's substantial activity is a hospital system. The first Shriners Hospital for Children opened in 1922, and the network has treated children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, cleft lip and palate and spinal cord injuries since, historically at no charge to families and now on a basis that does not turn on ability to pay. It is funded by the membership and by public fundraising, and it is the largest philanthropic operation attached to any fraternal order.
The order itself was founded in New York in the early 1870s by two Masons who wanted a body for enjoyment rather than instruction. The oriental theming was invented for the occasion, drawing on the nineteenth century fashion for the imagined East, and the founding legend about an Arabian order is understood by the Shrine as a founding legend. It has no connection with Islam and does not claim one. Read now, the costume, the name and the ritual are a clear example of period orientalism, and that is worth saying rather than passing over.
Membership requires being a Master Mason. In practice the Shrine has often been the most visible face of Freemasonry in American public life, through parades, circuses and hospital fundraising, which puts the least esoteric part of the structure at the front.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived From
The Shrine is a social and charitable body drawn from Freemasonry. A Shriner must be a Master Mason.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
Shriners International's own commemorative institutional production, made about itself for its own anniversary; stance holds.
Sources
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