The Marian Congregation
In the customary August appointment dedicated to Our Lady, today we take a closer look at one of the historical prayer associations born within the Society of Jesus.
The Marian Congregation is a sodality of the faithful, enrolled in the same, who met periodically for prayers, celebrations, processions and to carry out the charitable activities that the congregation aimed at. The special devotion to the Virgin Mary characterised the congregation, leaving a mark on its name, which is why it is called ‘Marian’.
It was not, however, a single local congregation; in every city where the Society of Jesus was present there was a Marian Congregation, as the various registers of members in the archives for the congregations of Rome, Venice, Brescia, Padua and Naples show.
Often the image of a confraternity or congregation is associated with religious and adult people; in reality, congregants were faithful of both sexes and the Marian congregation also existed for children and young people.
Each College of the Company, in fact, had its own Marian congregation within it to which boys could freely choose to enrol. Thanks to the colleges, town Marian Congregations multiplied, whose members then passed on to other organisations of the Company or the Catholic Church once they became adults.
In some colleges there was also a congregation for younger children, preparatory for entry into the Marian Congregation, as in the “Arici” college in Brescia where primary school students could refer to the “Congregation of the Guardian Angels”.
Among the very young congregants of the Colleges, there are some very famous names, such as Ettore Majorana and his brothers in the one at the Instituto Massimiliano Massimo, as well as Giovanni Battista Montini, or St Paul VI, and his brothers enrolled in the one at the Arici College in Brescia.
Pictured here is the first page of a diary of congregations from the Arici of Brescia.
Marian congregations were also present in the rest of Europe, in Albania, for example.
Over time the Marian Congregations have kept up with the times, today they have become CVX, Communities of Christian Life.
Maria Macchi
