Society of the Holy Name
Dominican Order Coat of Arms
| |
| Formation | early 15th century |
|---|---|
| Type | Catholic lay organisations |
| Key people | Didacus of Victoria |
| Website | www.nahns.com |
The Society of the Holy Name, formally known as the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and Jesus, is a Roman Catholic confraternity of the laity and is one of several which are under the care of the Dominican Order. It is open to all Catholic adults. The primary object of the society is to beget reverence for the Holy Name of God and Jesus Christ; it is also dedicated to making reparations, in particular, for blasphemy, perjury and immorality.[1]
History
The Council of Lyons in 1274 emphasized the need for the faithful to have a special devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. The Dominicans, who were actively spreading the Christian message at this time in a crusade against the Albegensians took on the challenge and preached the power of the Holy Name of Jesus. They spread the devotion extremely effectively. In every Dominican church, altars, confraternities and societies were erected everywhere in honour of the Holy Name.[1]
The devotion grew rapidly with the preaching of the Dominican order and several saints (including Bernardino of Siena, a Franciscan, and John of Capistrano). The devotion and confraternities were given further impetus by several grants of indulgence by Pope Boniface IX[1] and Pope Julius II.[2]
The first Holy Name Society in the modern sense was founded in the early 15th century by Didacus of Victoria, one of the greatest preachers of the devotion to the Divine Name. He founded the "Society of the Holy Name of God" and created a rule for its governance whose purpose "was to suppress the horrible profanation of the Divine Name by blasphemers, perjurers, and by men in their ordinary conversation." Long after Didacus' death in 1450, Pope Pius IV approved the society on April 13, 1564. In later years, the Society of the Holy Name of God merged with the "Confraternity of the Most Holy Name Jesus",[3] maintaining the rule laid down by Didacus. The society was thereafter also known under the title of the "Confraternity Against Oaths". Several Popes following Pius IV in the 16th and 17th centuries also made the Confraternity an object of special preference, including, most notably Pope Innocent IX who strongly encouraged its promotion and issued orders regulating its organisation.[1]
The next major step in the formation of the modern society came on June 21, 1571, when St. Pius V issued his Motu proprio "Decet Romanum", which restricted the canonical erection of the confraternity entirely to the jurisdiction of the Dominican Order and formally recognised "The Confraternity of the Most Holy Names of God".[2]
A final merger came on May 26, 1727, when Pope Benedict XIII confirmed the various privileges on both the "Confraternity of the Holy Name of God" and the "Society of the Name of Jesus" in his document Pretiosus. The two confraternities were essentially merged under the name "The Confraternity of the most Holy Names of God and Jesus", and exclusive rights to their governance were given to the Dominicans. In order to establish a local Society of the Holy Name, approval must be granted by the Dominican order, in the form of Letters patent.[2]
Until the conciliar reforms of the 1970s, the Holy Name Society was a society for men. While some parish Holy Name societies are still all-male, the Holy Name Society as a whole now welcomes both Catholic men and women.
Membership requirements
Membership is open to practicing Catholic men over the age of 18. Membership in the Holy Name Society is typically at the parish level. A candidate may join as a novice member if they reside in an area where there is no active Parish, Deanery or (Arch)diocesan Holy Name Society.[4]
During a novitiate (trial period), candidates undergo an orientation period where they learn the history, purpose, mission, Spiritual Benefits of membership, the Obligations of Membership, and the Holy Name Pledge. "They should be given a copy of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Parish Society so they fully understand the purpose of the Confraternity and how it is governed. During their novitiate... novice-members should demonstrate their sincerity and commitment by attending all spiritual conferences, devotional activities, and assemblies."[5]
A candidate becomes a full member after undergoing the Induction Ceremony, which is typically conducted on the Feast of the most Holy Name of Jesus, January 3,[6] with their name being entered into the Society's Official Register.[5]
Induction
This ceremony, which is typically carried out on the Feast of the Holy Name (January 3), consists of a profession of faith in a parish society chartered to the Dominican Order, as well as a series of solemn promises. These promises are to observe the Society's rules and constitutions; to love and respect the Holy Name; to abstain from blasphemy; to reverence Divine law and to respect civil law and civil authority; to love the Pope and to be a full member of the Catholic Church; to believe the Church's teachings, and to teach others of them; and to receive the sacraments regularly, pray often and perform works of physical and mental mortification on a regular basis.[6]
Following the solemn promises, members receive the handbook and a blessed token of the Society (usually a lapel pin).
Symbols of the Society
The Society makes use of a symbol of a man's head, surmounting a rayed halo, with a small Latin cross before his mouth. The motto of the Society is "Hallowed be Thy Name," which sits on the bottom rim of the symbol, the top rim having the letters "HNS," referring to the initials of the Society.
Activities
The apostolate of the society is to assist in parish ministries by performing the Corporal Works of Mercy: to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless, tend the sick, visit those in prison, and bury the dead; as well as the Spiritual Works of Mercy: to convert sinners, instruct the ignorant, counsel the wayward, comfort the sorrowing, bear adversity patiently, forgive offenses, and pray for the living and the dead.[7]
Diocesan and prison ministry
The Society performs these in a specific way at a local level by working on Archdiocesan projects. The National Association of the Holy Name Society, however, works with Prison Community in the State of Pennsylvania (USA), and has been doing so for the past 23 years.[8]
The canonisation of Blessed John of Vercelli
The other cause sought by the Society is the canonization of Blessed John of Vercelli, for which prayers are said at all meetings of the society. He is considered to be the "Founding Father" of the Holy Name Society, as it was he who volunteered the Dominican Order for the duty of promoting devotion to the Holy Name at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 (due to the death of Thomas Aquinas on his way to the council). He was a learned man, heavily involved in the Council. He was, amongst other things, nearly elected pope, and had been Master General of the Dominican Order.[9]
Worldwide distribution
The Holy Name Society is found in other countries also, although not as strongly as in the United States. Australia has several branches; however numbers have dwindled in comparison to the numbers of the 1950s, when membership numbered in excess of 100,000.[10] The Society had a brief revival beginning in 1998, when the society was canonically erected in Melbourne with ecclesiastical approval, although no subsequent branches have been erected.[11]
See also
- Religious Communities of the Name of Jesus
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Society of the Holy Name — (Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and Jesus).
An indulgenced confraternity in the Catholic Church. The primary object of the society is to beget due love and reverence for the Holy Name of God and Jesus Christ. The secondary object is to suppress blasphemy, perjury, oaths of any character that are forbidden, profanity, unlawful swearing improper language, and, as far as the members can, to prevent those vices in others (Pius IV, 13 April 1564). It had its origin in the Council of Lyons, 1274, which prescribed that the faithful should have a special devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, that reparation might be made for insults offered to it by Albigenses and other blasphemers. The Friars Preachers were preaching everywhere with the Zeal of St. Dominic; it was natural, then, that Gregory X selected the Dominicans to preach the devotion, which he did by a letter to Blessed John of Vercelli, master general of the order, 20 September 1274 (Constit. "Nuper in"). The master general immediately wrote to all the provincials of the order, expressing the pope's wish, and enjoining upon all the duty of labouring for its fulfilment (Litterae Encyclicae Mag. Gen Ord. Praed., Reichert, 1900). The brethren gave their best energies in executing the command, preaching everywhere the power and glory of the Holy Name of Jesus; and to give permanency to the devotion excited in the hearts of the people, it was ordained that in every Dominican church an altar of the Holy Name should be erected, and that societies or confraternities under the title and invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus should be established. St. Peter, Martyr (d. 1252); John of Vercelli, a contemporary of St. Dominic; Blessed Ambrose of Siena (d. 1286) are said to have been great propagators of the devotion. In the fourteenth century Blessed Henry Suso (d. 1365) is the most notable apostle of devotion to the Holy Name.
The history of the society in the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries is somewhat obscure, but that it continued to exist is certain from papal Bulls addressed to the Order of St. Dominic. Boniface IX in his Constitution "Hodie" 31 October, 1401, granted indulgences to those visiting the altar of the confraternity in the Dominican monastery at Schusen, Diocese of Werden, Saxony. In 1432 at Lisbon the devotion preached by a retired Dominican bishop, Andrea Diaz, was a means of stopping the ravages of a plague that was then afflicting that city. In gratitude for their deliverance, the people of all classes in Lisbon held, on 1 Jan., 1433, what was probably the first procession in honour of the Holy Name of Jesus. At this period St. Bernardine of Siena, an Italian Franciscan gained great renown as a promoter of the devotion in Italy. In the sixteenth century Emperor Charles V and King Philip II, moved by the prevalence of blasphemy and sacrilege, exhorted and encouraged the Dominicans to spread the devotion and to establish the society throughout their dominions. Among the preachers engaged in this apostolate, the most celebrated was the Spanish Dominican, Didacus of Victoria (d. 1450), who may be properly called the great preacher of the devotion of the Holy Name of God. He founded a confraternity known as the Society of the Holy Name of God, of which the special object was to suppress the horrible profanation of the Divine Name by blasphemers, perjurers, and by men in their ordinary conversation, and to this end he drew up a rule and constitution for its government.
His confraternity was approved by Pope Pius IV 13 April, 1564, who richly endowed it with indulgences, commanded all ecclesiastical authorities to favour it with all their power, and, in a special letter, recommended it to the laity (Bullarium Ord. Praed., tom. I, v). Later, this confraternity was merged into the Society of the Holy Name of Jesus. Thereafter the society was called by both titles. It also bore the title of "Confraternity against Oaths". Following the example of Pius IV, the popes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably Innocent XI, made the society an object of special solicitude, encouraging its promotion, granting indulgences, and regulating its organization. St. Pius V, in the Motu Proprio "Decet Romanum", 21 June, 1571, absolutely restricted the canonical erection of the society to the Dominican order. Letters patent from the master general of the Dominicans are required for the canonical establishment of the society (for the United States these letters are issued through the bureau of the Holy Name Society, New York). In missionary countries special provision is made for the establishment of the society.
The acts of the general chapters of the order held since 1571 contain numerous regulations and admonitions insisting upon zeal in propagating the confraternity. Great encouragement to the development of the society was given at the close of the nineteenth century by Pope Leo XIII, who decreed through the Congregation of Indulgences, 20 May, 1896, that the bishops may dispense from the Clementine decree "Quaecumque", requiring that there should be only one confraternity in a town or city. Before this the society had existed in many churches of various cities of the United States, by virtue of the dispensations obtained from Rome. Since then branches of the society have multiplied very rapidly and in several dioceses; following the example set in the Archdiocese of New York, 21 May, 1882, they have been formed into diocesan unions under a director general appointed by the ordinary. Being thus united, the men of the society in the United States (they number about 500,000) are able to accomplish great good by public yearly processions of many thousands professing reverence for the Name of Jesus Christ, and abhorrence of blasphemy, profanity, and immorality. They are required to receive Holy Communion in a body at least once every three months; in most places the rule prescribes Communion on the second Sunday of every month, when they may gain plenary and partial indulgences granted by Gregory XIII. A complete list of indulgences, all of which may be applied to the souls in purgatory, is contained in the "Pocket Manual of the Holy Name Society" (new edition, New York, 1909), by the Dominican, Father McKenna, who for many years has been recognized as the apostle of the Holy Name in the United States. In 1907 the monthly publication of "The Holy Name Journal" (New York) was begun by the Dominican Fathers.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Society of the Holy Name". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 "History of the Holy Name Society". Archdioscesan Association of the Holy Name Societies. Saint Paul, Minnesota. Archived from the original on 10 October 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- Back to citation "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Religious Communities of the Name of Jesus".
- Back to citation "Membership". www.nahns.com. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
- Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 "Membership". Archdiocesan Association of Holy Name Societies. Saint Paul, Minnesota. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
- Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 "The Induction Ceremony". Archdiocesan Association of the Holy Name Societies. Saint Paul, Minnesota. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
- Back to citation "Mission Statement". National Association of the Holy Name Society. Archived from the original on January 20, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- Back to citation "Prison Ministry". National Association of the Holy Name Society. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- Back to citation "Cause for Canonization of Blessed John of Vercelli". National Association of the Holy Name Society. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- Back to citation "The Catholic Community in Australia". Catholic Australia. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- Back to citation "New Lay Apostolate: The Holy Name Society". AD2000-A Journal of Religious Opinion. Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.