Confraternities and archconfraternities
Holy Name Society
Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus · Confraternity of the Most Holy Names of God and Jesus · Society of the Holy Name · HNS · Confraternity Against Oaths
Pius IV approved it
Order of Preachers (Dominicans), who grant the charter for each parish society by letters patent. In the United States the umbrella body is the National Association of the Holy Name Society (NAHNS), made up of diocesan and archdiocesan unions across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.No current figure is published. Australian membership alone exceeded 100,000 in the 1950s, which gives a sense of the society's former scale.
Worth some persistence
In person, with a priest. Free to join. Parish societies commonly set small annual dues, and supplies such as pins, medallions and the enrollment register are bought from the Holy Name Supply Store.
How to be enrolledMembership is normally at parish level, so you join an existing parish society and are inducted by a priest or deacon at a ceremony, usually on 3 January. The Join page tells you to contact the Regional Vice President for your part of the country to ask what societies are near you, and those contacts are listed on the site. If your parish has no chartered society you must get the pastor's permission and request a charter from the Confraternity Director of your Dominican province.
Members have a portal to sign in to.
This society exists for one plain purpose: to keep the names of God and of Jesus from being used as swear words, and to make up for it when they are. A member makes the Holy Name Pledge, which is a promise about how you talk and how you behave, then joins in the parish society's work: adoration and conferences on the one hand, and the works of mercy on the other, feeding people, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, burying the dead. It was historically a men's society and some parish chapters still are, though the society as a whole now welcomes Catholic men and women over eighteen.
Where it comes from
The devotion was entrusted to the Dominicans at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. The first society in the modern sense was founded in the early fifteenth century by Didacus of Victoria and approved by Pope Pius IV on 13 April 1564. St Pius V reserved canonical erection to the Dominican Order in 1571, and Benedict XIII merged the two parent confraternities under one name in 1727. Established in North America in 1896 by Fr Charles H. McKenna, O.P.
What you promise
Make the Holy Name Pledge and the solemn promises at the Induction Ceremony: to observe the society's rules and constitutions, to love and respect the Holy Name, to abstain from blasphemy, to reverence divine law and respect civil law and authority, to be a loyal member of the Catholic Church and teach her doctrine, and to receive the sacraments regularly, pray often and practise mortification. Attend the society's spiritual conferences and devotional activities and help with its parish and diocesan works. Your name goes into the society's official register at induction.
What the Church attaches
Indulgences granted to the confraternity by a long line of popes from Boniface IX and Julius II onward, and a share in the prayers and works of the Dominican Order and of fellow members. Current grants are set out in the society's own Why Be a Member pamphlet rather than online.
Enrollment checked 2026-10-22. Details change without notice and parish practice varies. Confirm before relying on this sheet.