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.
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 a further boost by several grants of indulgence by Pope Boniface IX and Pope Julius II.
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 and enriched it with many indulgences. In later years, the Society of the Holy Name of God merged with the "Confraternity of the Most Holy Name Jesus" 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 further enriched the confraternity with indulgences, strongly encouraged its promotion and issued orders regulating its organisation.
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."
A final merger came on 26 May 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.
For much of its existence, the Holy Name Society was a male society. While some parish Holy Name societies are still all-male, the Holy Name Society as a whole now welcomes both Catholic men and women.
Read more about this topic: Society Of The Holy Name
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