Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback
Dear catholic.com visitors: This website from Catholic Answers, with all its many resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. A fully independent, lay-run, 501(c)(3) ministry that receives no funding from the institutional Church, we rely entirely on the generosity of everyday people like you to keep this website going with trustworthy, fresh, and relevant content. If everyone visiting this month gave just $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Bona Mors Confraternity

The Confraternity of the Happy Death

Click to enlarge

Bona Mors Confraternity, the (HAPPY DEATH), was founded October 2, 1648, in the Church of the Gesu, Rome, by Father Vincent Caraffa, seventh General of the Society of Jesus, and approved by the Sovereign Pontiffs Innocent X and Alexander VII. In 1729 it was raised to an archconfraternity and enriched with numerous indulgences by Benedict XIII. He authorized the Father General of the Society of Jesus, who, in virtue of his office, was the director, to erect Bona Mors confraternities in all churches of his order. In 1827 Leo XII gave to the director general the power to erect and affiliate branch confraternities in churches not belonging to the Society of Jesus, and to give them a share in all the privileges and indulgences of the archconfraternity. The object of the association is to prepare its members by a well regulated life to die in peace with God. The longer title: “Confraternity of Our Lord Jesus Christ dying on the Cross, and of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, His sorrowful Mother”, expresses the chief means to attain that end, devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the sorrows of Mary. Besides this the union of prayers and good works of the associates and the special instructions at the public meetings help powerfully to prepare for a happy death. The conditions for membership are to present oneself to the director; to express to him one’s desire to become a member; to receive from him an outward sign of acceptance, usually in the form of a certificate of admission; and to have one’s name registered in the local Bona Mors Register. Only “by an unusual and extraordinary exception”, says a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, “is it allowed to enroll those absent”. The director is authorized to decide what constitutes such an exceptional case. The practices of the association and the indulgences granted to the members are specified in the manual of the confraternity (New York, 1896).

JOHN J. WYNNE


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free
Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donatewww.catholic.com/support-us