Confraternities and archconfraternities
Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood
Confraternity and Union of the Precious Blood · Archconfraternity of the Most Precious Blood
St Gaspar del Bufalo founded it
Sister Adorers of the Most Precious Blood, Precious Blood Monastery, Brooklyn, New York.
SacramentalsA medal, sent with the enrollment materials (encouraged, not required).
A letter or two
Postal mail. One year membership $10.00; perpetual membership $20.00 (a husband and wife may be enrolled together, even if one has died); family membership $35.00 (parents, children and grandparents, living and deceased). For a departed loved one in the cloister's purgatorial society: one year $10.00, perpetual $15.00.
Get the formYou download the one page PDF enrollment form, tick the membership you want, and post it with a cheque in US funds to the Confraternity of the Precious Blood in Brooklyn; there is no online payment and no web form.
This is a prayer league centred on a cloistered monastery. You enroll yourself, your family, or someone who has died, and the sisters then remember those names in their daily Masses, devotions and work for as long as the enrollment lasts. The anchor points of the year are two novenas of Masses, one to St Joseph in March and one to the Precious Blood in late June, plus a Christmas octave of Masses from midnight on Christmas Day to New Year's Day. People join for a very concrete reason: they want a community of nuns praying for a specific person by name, including a person in purgatory.
Where it comes from
Several distinct bodies carry this name. A Confraternity of the Most Precious Blood was founded at Bruges in 1621 by Archbishop Andre Fremiot and confirmed by Rome two years later. The Roman confraternity associated with Msgr Francesco Albertini and St Gaspar del Bufalo dates from the early nineteenth century. The body that currently enrolls members in the United States is the Confraternity and Union of the Precious Blood at the Precious Blood Monastery in Brooklyn, New York, which does not state a founding year on its site.
What you promise
The site publishes no daily rule. The commitment is the enrollment itself, with the member receiving a JMJ manual, medal and devotional materials to use. Historically the Roman confraternity asked members to be registered, to honour the Precious Blood in daily prayer, and to spread the devotion.
What the Church attaches
Daily remembrance in the Masses, devotions and good works of the cloister for the length of the enrollment; inclusion in the Novena to St Joseph (11 to 19 March), the Novena to the Precious Blood (23 June to 1 July) and the Christmas Octave of Masses; and for the departed, enrollment in the cloister's purgatorial society. Perpetual members receive a gold embossed leatherette folder with a lithographed Mass inscription. Historic plenary indulgences were attached to members of the Precious Blood confraternity on the day of registration, though no current indulgence list is published on the site.
Enrollment checked 2026-10-22. Details change without notice and parish practice varies. Confirm before relying on this sheet.