Holy Name Society
(also known as the Society of the Holy Name of Jesus)

 

Origins of the Holy Name Society

The Holy Name Society is an indulgenced confraternity that Pope Gregory X tasked Blessed John of Vercelli (pictured at right) with founding in 1274, after the close of the Second Council of Lyons. Bl. John of Vercelli was a Dominican priory and a member of the Papal Court.

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.

The primary object of the Holy Name 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. In addition, the Holy Name Society aims to make Our Lord known to those who don’t know Him, and better loved by those who do not love and respect Him. 

Numerous indulgences have been granted by multiple Popes over the centuries to members of the Society, and Holy Name Societies were formed in parishes all over the world since that time (over eight centuries). In the early 1900's, members in the U.S. alone numbered over 500,000! The picture at left shows a dinner with members of the Holy Name Society at a parish in Milwaukee in the 1930's. The majority of men in every parish were members in those days!

There is especially a need for a Holy Name Society in this day and age when there is such a widespread abuse of the name of Our Lord, speaking lightly of God and His Saints, and ridiculing of the Church and its members.
 

Obligations of the Holy Name Society

In reparation for offenses against the Holy Name of Jesus, members of the Holy Name Society perform the following once per month on Holy Name Sunday (the second Sunday of each month): 

1. Receive Holy Communion in the body – Pews are reserved for Society members at the front of the chapel on each Holy Name Sunday. All members of the Society receive Holy Communion together in the body in reparation for offenses against the Holy Name of Jesus.
   
   If you are unable to sit in the reserved pews on Holy Name Sunday, you may still walk up to receive Holy Communion in the body with the rest of the Society members.
   
   If you are unable to receive Holy Communion on Holy Name Sunday, you may still join in saying the Litany of the Holy Name immediately after Mass (see below):
    

2. Recite the short “Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus” - Immediately after Mass on Holy Name Sunday, all Society members congregate in the front reserved pews to say the Litany of the Holy Name, again, in reparation for offenses against the Holy Name of Jesus. A print out of the Litany is provided at that time and reciting the Litany takes only a few minutes.
   
   Note if you are unable to say the Litany with the other members after Mass on occasion, this is perfectly acceptable and does not affect your membership in the Society.

Why should I join the Holy Name Society?

• Numerous indulgences have been attached to membership in the Society, which may also be offered for the souls in Purgatory.
• The more members, surely the more blessings there will be for our chapel!
• All of us probably know someone who blasphemes, uses indecent language or the Name of God in vain, or speaks lightly of the Church. As good Catholics, we should all want to go out of our way to make reparation for these sins which offend Our Lord.
• Since we are all already at Mass on each Holy Name Sunday, there is no reason why all men in the Chapel (high school age and older) should not be members!

How do I join?

• Simply receive Holy Communion with the Society members and join in reciting the Litany of the Holy Name on each Holy Name Sunday (the second Sunday of each month).

"...Likewise the Holy Name Society, an excellent leader in the promotion of Christian worship and piety."
Pope Pius XII, Sertum Laetitiae, 1939

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