A princess initiated by Giuseppe Garibaldi

Princess Maria Lascaris Di Ventimiglia was received as a Freemason like a man within the Grand Orient-Supreme Council of Palermo. This obedience was then presided over by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who personally presented the sisters with their certificates of recognition. Despite this openness in the 1860s, the main Italian obedience, the Grand Orient of Italy, decided to forbid women's access in 1879.