The Passing Order of St. Paul

The Passing Order of St. Paul, historically also known as the Mediterranean Pass, is a passing order: a short ceremony conferred on the way to a principal order, in the manner of a gate passed while traveling. In the American York Rite it stands between the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and the Order of Malta, and its imagery sets the candidate on the sea-road of the Mediterranean, the world of St. Paul’s voyages, storms, and shipwrecks on the journey toward Rome.

History

The Malta line of the American Templar system took shape in the early nineteenth century, as the Commanderies organized their series of orders. The pathway honored the historical relationship between the Orders of the Temple and of St. John (the Hospitallers), and it required a ceremony of passing before the Order of Malta could be conferred. The Mediterranean Pass, under the invocation of St. Paul, whose voyages across that same sea the Book of Acts records, served that purpose, and the passing order carrying his name remained part of the system as the Grand Encampment standardized the American series.

As a “passing” rather than a principal order, it is deliberately compact; its presence in the Commandery preserves a very old piece of Masonic architecture, in which progress through the orders is imagined as a pilgrimage with its stations along the way.

In the York Rite

The Passing Order of St. Paul is conferred within the Commandery, between the Illustrious Order of the Red Cross and the Order of Malta, before the crowning Order of the Temple. See all order histories on the degree histories page.