| The Holy Name Society Blessed John of Verelli, Pray for us Click on the link to visit our website: www.olmholyname.org |
|
| The Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and Jesus (now known as the Holy Name Society in the United States) had its origin in 1274, when at the Council of Lyons, a “papal brief” of Pope Gregory X prescribed that the faithful shall have a special devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus so that reparation could be made to counteract the Albigensian heresy, a heresy that denied the Divinity of Christ. Pope Gregory entrusted the promotion of this devotion to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).
Friar John Garbella (Blessed John of Vercelli), Master General of the Dominican Order at that time, wrote to all Dominican Provincials expressing the pope’s wish enjoining them to preach everywhere the power and glory of the Holy Name of Jesus. Furthermore, it was ordained that in every Dominican church an altar of the Holy Name be erected and that confraternities under the title and invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus be established.
The Holy Name movement spread rapidly in Europe under indulgences granted by successive popes, primarily moved by the prevalence at that time of blasphemy, perjury and profanity of the sacred Name. In the sixteenth century Emperor Charles V and King Philip II encourage the Dominicans to spread devotion to the Holy Name and to establish the Society throughout their dominions.
At the close of the nineteenth century Pope Leo XIII decreed that Bishops might dispense from the Clementine decree “Quaecumque”, a decree that restricted cities to one Society or Confraternity. This proclamation of Pope Leo helped spread the movement to the United States, an initial Society being set in the Archdiocese of New York in May 1882. The rest is history. |