HISTORICAL BACKGROUND of the HOLY NAME SOCIETY

Origin and Development

Devotion to the Holy Name is most ancient, going back to the beginning of the Old Testament. The second commandment of the decalogue enjoins reverence to the Name of God. In the New Law, our Lord taught us to pray that Gods Name might be hallowed everywhere.

The Holy Name Society is an established confraternity of the church, Having been founded by Blessed John of Vercelli, Master General of the Order of Preachers (Dominican) in 1274 at the request of Pope Gregory X following the Council of Lyons, the Society has since remained under the patronage of the Dominicans. For centuries it was to be found only in Dominican parishes or priories.

The first unit of confraternity estalished in the Philippines was on November 13, 1930 in the University of Santo Tomas. The very Reverend Fr. Silvestre Sancho, O.P., then Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University, aided by Mr. Manuel Colayco. Pre-war editor of the "Commonwealth", was mainly responsible for the establishment in the said university.

From then on the Confraternity branched out into the parishes until April 21, 1950 when the most Rev. Members of the Episcopal Commission on Catholic Action granted the Society Official Mandate to operate as a National Catholic Action Organization.

To coordinate the different units of the society which were gradually spreading throughout the country, His Excellency, Bishop Vicente P. Reyes, then National Director of Catholic Action of the Philippines, convoked purposely on august 2, 1953 a meeting of archdiocesan and diocesan union officers and spiritual directors of the society to organize a national governing body which then approved the constitution and by-laws for the National Directorate.