Abbreviation | SOM |
---|---|
Named after | Mary Help of Christians |
Formation | 1931 |
Merger of | The Confraternity of Our Lady (formed in 1880) and the League of Our Lady (formed in 1902). |
Type | Marian devotional society |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Region | Worldwide |
Services | Grants for pilgrimages(Marian shrines) and reparations of Marian images(UK). |
Official language | English |
Fr Graeme Rowlands ssc | |
Chaplain-General | Fr Simon Morris ssc |
Affiliations | Church of England, Anglican Communion |
Staff | 4-6 |
Website |
The Society of Mary is an Anglican devotional society dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"dedicated to the Glory of God and the Holy Incarnation of Christ under the invocation of Our Lady, Help of Christians."
The Anglican Society of Mary is not to be confused with the two Roman Catholic religious orders of the same name commonly called the Marists and the Marianists.
The stated objectives of the society are:
Members of the society keep a rule of life that includes traditional Marian devotions (such as the Angelus and the Rosary), intercession for the faithful departed members of the society, participation in Mass on the major Marian feasts and solemnities and active engagement in apostolic work.
In localities where there are a number of members they may come together to form local organisations called "wards" or "cells". These groups gather for prayer and fellowship.
The society's magazine, called AVE, is published twice per year.
The Society of Mary began in 1931 as the combination of two other societies: The Confraternity of Our Lady (formed in 1880) and the League of Our Lady (formed in 1902). The American region of the society received its independence in 1962. Although Anglican in origin there are non-Anglican members of the society and they can be found all over the world. The main regional organisations are in England and the United States.
A shrine to the Virgin Mary, or Marian shrine, is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinations of Christian pilgrimages.
Walsingham is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval monastic houses. Walsingham is 27 miles northwest of Norwich.
A scapular is a Western Christian garment suspended from the shoulders. There are two types of scapulars, the monastic and devotional scapular; both forms may simply be referred to as "scapular". As an object of popular piety, a scapular serves to remind wearers of their commitment to live a Christian life.
Our Lady of Ipswich was a popular English Marian shrine before the English Reformation. Among Marian shrines, only the shrine at Walsingham attracted more visitors.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated as patroness of the Carmelite Order.
The Guild of All Souls is an Anglican devotional society dedicated to prayer for faithful departed Christians. As stated on its website, it is a "devotional society praying for the souls of the Faithful Departed, and teaching the Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints."
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, but generally rejected in other Christian denominations.
Our Lady of Walsingham is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus venerated by Catholics and High Church Anglicans associated with the Marian apparitions to Richeldis de Faverches, a pious English noblewoman, in 1061 in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk, England. Lady Richeldis had a structure built named "The Holy House" in Walsingham which later became a shrine and place of pilgrimage.
The Sodality of Our Lady, also known as the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Roman Catholic Marian society founded in 1563 by young Belgian Jesuit Jean Leunis at the Roman College of the Society of Jesus. The modern Ignatian lay group Christian Life Community traces its origins to the first Sodality.
The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (CBS), officially the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional society in the Anglican Communion dedicated to venerating the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It has worked to promote the Mass as the main Sunday service in churches, regular confession, and the Eucharistic fast. The society's motto is Adoremus in aeternum sanctissimum sacramentum, or in English, "Let us forever adore the Most Blessed Sacrament".
The Living Rosary Association was founded on 8 December 1826 by Pauline Marie Jaricot in Lyon, France. The Catholic Church formally approved the association through a canonical letter in February, 1827. The aims of the association were two; to bring the people of France to a prayerful way of life and distribute Catholic literature and devotional articles. The original Living Rosary Association slowly declined; however, the tradition has been revived in various forms.
Anglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning Mary, mother of Jesus. As Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, within the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglican movement, Mary is accorded honour as the theotokos, a Koiné Greek term that means "God-bearer" or "one who gives birth to God".
A confraternity is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most common among Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and the Western Orthodox. When a Catholic confraternity has received the authority to aggregate to itself groups erected in other localities, it is called an archconfraternity. Examples include the various confraternities of penitents and the confraternities of the cord, as well as the Confraternity of the Holy Guardian Angels and the Confraternity of the Rosary.
Anglican devotions are private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians to promote spiritual growth and communion with God. Among members of the Anglican Communion, private devotional habits vary widely, depending on personal preference and on their affiliation with low-church or high-church parishes.
Mary, the mother of Jesus in Christianity, is known by many different titles, epithets, invocations, and several names associated with places.
Marian feast days in the liturgical year are celebrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The number of Marian feasts celebrated, their names can vary among Christian denominations.
The exact origins of both the rosary and scapular are subject to debate among scholars. Pious tradition maintains that both the rosary and the brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel were given by the Virgin Mary to Dominic and Simon Stock respectively during the 13th century. Historical records document their growth during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe. By the early 20th century, they had gained such a strong following among Catholics worldwide that Josef Hilgers, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914, stated: "Like the Rosary, the Brown scapular has become the badge of the devout Catholic."
The Queen of Angels Foundation is an association of lay faithful of the Catholic Church dedicated to fostering devotion to Mary, Mother of Jesus. The Foundation is a volunteer group of lay men and women who "...strive together in a common endeavor to foster a more perfect life for themselves and their community by promoting reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose name, as Our Lady of the Angels, the City and Archdiocese of Los Angeles were founded..." and whom Catholics revere as Queen of Heaven and Empress of the Americas.
Our Lady of Willesden is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by Christians in London, especially by Anglicans, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. It is associated with the historic image (statue) and pilgrimage centre in the community of Willesden, originally a village in Middlesex, England, but now a suburb of London. The pre-Reformation shrine was home to the Black Madonna of Willesden statue.