Notre Dame of Maryland University Our Lady’s Sodality records

The earliest archival record of Sodality at Notre Dame is a certificate dated December 9, 1876, that established “The Sodality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Academy of Notre Dame.” Throughout the following years the name of this organization took on many forms. The first catalog that lists Sodality is in 1918-19 and has its name as Children of Mary Sodality. Another Sodality was “erected” in 1922-23, following a request to Archbishop Michael Curley dated November 22, 1922, and granted by him on December 11. Minutes of the organization record that the “newly established” Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary received members on February 2, 1923. The 1924-25 catalog lists both the Sodality of the Sacred Heart and Sodality of the Children of Mary, and these names appeared for a number of years. The 1935-36 catalog gives the name as the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and this name continues in catalogs all the way to 1964-65, the last year the catalog listed student organizations. However, archival records show the name as either Our Lady’s Sodality, the Sodality of Our Lady, or simply Sodality.

An undated constitution of Our Lady’s Sodality lists the following purposes: “promotion of personal sanctification of each member; promotion of sanctification of others; the defense of Christ and His Church; the promotion of active, real love for our Blessed Mother as a means of accomplishing the above objectives.”

Activities of Sodality included an annual May procession that started at the statue of the Virgin Mary and continued around to the various shrines on campus; an annual Father-Daughter Day; meetings at which guest speakers delivered addresses such as “The Sodality Way of Life in the Professional World”; a group trip to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.; a Christmas party for the children of Saint Elizabeth’s Orphanage; and an outdoor “living rosary.”

This type of devotional organization faded in the wake of Vatican II reforms in the 1960s. The last year that officers for Sodality were listed in Columns was for 1963-64. There is no archival record of the formal end of Notre Dame’s Our Lady’s Sodality.