Bratstvo Lodge

1883 – 2005

In 1880 during the installation of Hiram lodge in Turno Severin (Romania) among Ivan Vedar, Dimitar Karamfilovich (18 degree mason) and other brothers an idea was discussed to install a new lodge in Sofia, Bulgaria with the name "Brotherhood for the crown of Bulgaria". The decission was brought to the attention of the Great East of Portugal.

The group of masons in Sofia increased during 1880 with the new brothers who joined it as they moved away from Rousse. The newly joined brothers included J. Jumaliev, R. Ivanov, M. Marinov and others. After some preparations and with the support of D. Karamfilovich, M. Sarafov, Konstantin Velichkov, Konstantin Stoilov and others on 7-19th June 1883 in the city of Sofia Bratstvo lodge was installed under lodge number 162 as part of the Great East of Portugal. The first lodge master was D. Karamfilovich. In 1886 the lodge consisted of 27 brothers. Out of these 27 the lodge master was 18th degree and 20 brothers were 3rd degree. At that time Spas Vatsov who was head of department in the Ministry of Education was seal guard, D. Popov who was the secretary of the same ministry was senior warden, G. Zlatarsky was one of the first Bulgarian geologists was junior warden, Dr. A. Shishmanov head of the capital's hospital was orator, I. Brakalov a member of the supreme national audit office was first secretary, G. Hlebarov was second secretary, M. Tenev was a high ranked employee at the Ministry of Finance and eventuall became Minister of Finance was director of ceremonies, V. Zolotvich who worked for the national audit office and N. Benev who was a lawyer and Minister were inner guards. The famous architect of the palace - Gustav Vitral and Yosif Franc were temple guards, Dr. S. Hristov was librarian. The rest of the members with a master degree were Ianko Kovachev (printer), A. Menis (private secretary of the prime-ministers A. Batenberg, I. Dimitrov, K. Velichkov, K. Stoilov). Second degree was awarded to the pharmacist N. Stansky and first degree brothers were the following: Filip Simidov, Mihalky Goergiev (writer and diplomat), G. Heberly representative of Eastern railway company and others.

Other borthers who were connected with the Bratstvo Lodge were D. Rizov, V. Vinarov, Dr. S. Mihailovsky, P. Popov, Dr. I. Penkov, T. Ivanchov who was prime minister of Bulgaria for a short period of time, I. Jumaliev, Nikola Obretenov, Panayot Dulgerov, eng. I. Penchev, etc. Closely connected to the lodge and its deeds was the prime minister of Bulgaria - Alexander Batenberg.

Even though Bratstvo lodge had just a few members it managed to unite some high ranked Bulgarian brothers, who played key roles in the 19th century Bulgaria.

Bratstvo lodge initated the idea to unite the various red cross type organisations which existed at that time in Bulgaria under a single organisation - The Red Cross. With continious work and negotiating the Bulgarian Red Cross was formed and D. Karamfilovich headed the new organisation.

During 1886 - 1887 there were fierce political fights in the political life of the country, which led to the lodge being suspended in 1887.

In 1888 D. Karamfilovich and K. Stoilov made some attempts to reactivate Bratstvo lodge - but with no success. Later on D. Karamfilovich testified that there was some masonic lodge under the protection of Ferdinad and Konstantin Stoilov was aware of its activity and problems and that D. Karamfilovich was feeding the lodge with masonic documentation as well as that he was still trying to reactivate Bratstvo lodge. What happened to that idea is unknown these days.

In the summer of 2005 some master masons from the Sofia lodge prof. Assen Zlatarov after a long discussion and preparations and impressed by the activity of its predecessors decided to reactive Bratstvo lodge in the city of Sofia.

On 20th July 2005 Bratstvo lodge was accepted as a union lodge - part of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons in Bulgaria with a patent number 032.