Members of the Archconfraternity of St. Stephen will be invested on Sunday, October 27th at the 12:30 pm Mass. All are invited to attend the Mass in support of our St. John Cantius Altar Servers.
History of the Archconfraternity of St. Stephen at St. John Cantius
Thanks to the blessing of Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., an organization for altar boys, the Archconfraternity of St. Stephen, was established at St. John Cantius Parish in 2009 to foster the vocation of ministering at the altar.
The Archconfraternity of St. Stephen encourages positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Church’s liturgy and so contribute to the whole community’s participation in a more fruitful worship of God.
The Archconfraternity also teaches altar servers a greater understanding of what they are doing so that they may serve with increasing reverence and prayerfulness and thereby be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life.
The Guild of St Stephen is an International Organization of Altar Servers founded in England in 1904 by Father Hamilton McDonald when he formed a Society of Altar Servers at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in London.
In 1905, Pope Pius X gave his approbation to the Canonical establishment of the Guild at Westminster Cathedral and in 1906, the Sacred Congregation of Rites made the Guild an Archconfraternity prima primaria enabling all the parish branches to be linked with it.
The Guild spread, and in 1934, Pope Pius XI enabled all Guilds of Altar Servers throughout the British Commonwealth to be affiliated with the Archconfraternity at Westminster.
