Romanian Masons

Simion Barnutiu (21 July 1808 - 28 May 1864) was a Romanian historian, academic, philosopher, jurist, liberal politician and Freemason. A leader of the 1848 revolutionary movement of Transylvanian Romanians, he represented its Eastern Rite Catholic wing. Barnutiu lived for a large part of his life in Moldavia, and was for long a professor of philosophy at Academia Mihaileana and at the University of Iasi.

Born in Bocsa, Transylvania, he became a teacher of history at the secondary school in Blaj, which was at the time, like the rest of Transylvania, part of the Austrian Empire. Barnutiu was influenced early-on by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (Kantianism), in which he saw the means to reform society in opposition to traditional theological views, while supporting a presence of laity in the administrative structures of his own church. An active contributor to Foaie pentru minte, inima si literatura, the literary supplement of George Barit' journal Gazeta de Transilvania, he became noted after 1842 for virulently opposing the decision of the Magyar-dominated Transylvanian Diet to give Hungarian status as a semi-official language in local administration.

Titu Liviu Maiorescu (15 February 1840 - 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, Freemason, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century.

A member of the Conservative Party, he was Foreign Minister between 1910 and 1914 and Prime Minister of Romania from 1913 to 1914. He represented Romania at the Peace Conference in Bucharest that ended the Second Balkan War. In politics as in culture he favoured Germany over France. He opposed Romania's entry in World War I against Germany, but he nevertheless refused to collaborate with the German army after it had occupied Bucharest.

Traian Vuia (August 17, 1872 - September 3, 1950) was a Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who designed, built and flew an early aircraft. His first flight traveled about 12 m (40 feet) at Montesson, France on March 18, 1906. This was the first well-documented unassisted takeoff and landing on a level surface by an engine-driven monoplane with a wheeled undercarriage. Vuia was a Freemason.

A French citizen since 1918, Vuia was associated with the French Resistance during World War II. He returned to Romania in 1950.

Vasile Alecsandri (21 July 1821 - 22 August 1890) was a Romanian Freemason, poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia.

In 1848, he became one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement based in Iasi. He wrote a widely read poem urging the public to join the cause, "Catre Romani" (To Romanians), later renamed "Desteptarea Romaniei" (Romania's Awakening). Together with Mihail Kogalniceanu and Costache Negri, he wrote a manifesto of the revolutionary movement in Moldavia, "Dorintele partidei nationale din Moldova" (Wishes of the National Party of Moldavia).