St. John's Lodge #115, F&AM

Doings & Communications

  • Bro. Robert S. Santoro, P.M.

    Called From Labor: August 19, 2026, age 79

    Entered: April 20, 1992

    Passed: May 18, 1992

    Raised: June 15, 1992

    Bob was initiated into St. John’s Lodge in April 1992. He served as Worshipful Master twice – in 1996 and 2006.  He then served as Secretary of the Lodge from 2015 through 2017.

    In addition to his service as an officer, Bob served this Lodge tirelessly behind the scenes in many capacities which in no small way was critical to the success of St. John’s Lodge. He was instrumental in the Lodge’s success in attracting and initiating new members.  As an example, during the period of 2011 – 2020, the Lodge initiated 125 new members. For several years he organized the construction of the Grand Lodge Masonic floats for the United States Independence Day Parade in Philadelphia.  He organized and hosted our own St. John’s School of Instruction held most months at his property on Mifflin St. in South Philadelphia.

    Brother Santoro retired to Vasto, Italy in 2020 where he and his wife Marsha enjoyed living on the Adriatic coast of Italy. There he was very active in local Italian Masonic Lodges and was well known to officers of the Italian Grand Lodge.

  • Bro. Herbert Biderberg

    Called From Labor: August 14, 2026, age 98

    Entered: March 11, 1957

    Passed: May 18, 1957

    Raised: June 15, 1957

    Masonic Service to be performed at Finn’s Point National Cemetery, Pennsville, NJ, Friday, August 28th, 10:30 AM. Please arrive by 10:15 AM.

  • From The East: September, 2026

    Brethren,

    Welcome back from our summer recess. I hope these past months provided each of you an opportunity to rest, replenish yourselves, and spend meaningful time with family and those you love.

    A question: What does it truly mean to be free? Freedom is not doing whatever we want, whenever we want, without regard for consequence. That is not freedom; that is merely being governed by our impulses. True freedom comes with a cost.

    Our working tools remind us of this. The Compasses teach us to circumscribe our desires and keep our passions within due bounds. There is something profound in that lesson: a free man must possess the power to limit himself. If I cannot govern my appetites, my anger, my ego, my habits, or my desires, then I must ask myself—who is actually in control?

    There is a cost to sovereignty. Governing oneself is difficult. It requires us to make choices we may not want to make, accept consequences we would rather avoid, and sometimes sacrifice what feels good in the moment for what we know to be right.

    Perhaps this is one of the great challenges of becoming a Freemason—not merely gaining freedom but becoming a man capable of carrying its weight.

    As we return to our work this fall, I challenge each of us to consider: “Where in my life do I need greater freedom, and what responsibility must I accept to obtain it?”

    May we continue learning to govern ourselves, apply our working tools, and become not only better men—but truly “Free Men”

    Sincerely and fraternally,

    Bro. Adin Michelen, P.M., WM

  • Hello, world!

    Welcome, members and friends of St. John’s Lodge, to our newly-rebuilt web pages, through which we hope to share stories and grow our community. We’ve updated our writing platform from an early-2000’s system to a modern, flexible WordPress one.

    At the present time, you’ll find it a bit sparse, as our old site was, but with much-improved capability for visual and functional enhancements, and we’ll be updating it regularly. Note, for example, our improved Calendar page.

    Contributed content is welcome, and appreciated, particularly photos from charitable and other events. More than that, though, we’d love to have someone with a graphic design background join the website group, and help us build a site worthy of St. John’s.