IN a class-room of the Roman College, in the year 1563, a young Belgian Jesuit, Father John Leunis, is surrounded by a group of boys of seemingly unbounded energy. The good Father sees in their dark eyes a power and an enthusiasm which, if inspired and directed, may do immense things for God. They must be kept unspotted from the world. He speaks to them out of the abundance of the heart. He is not there primarily to teach them classics, but to fire them with love of God and zeal for souls. Soon the boys are hanging on his every word. I can, I will! Such were the thoughts passing through their minds. To be a knight of Our Lady - her perpetual servant - to be worthy of her. To put on her white armour; to be a Galahad with the strength of ten - here was a high aim - a star to guide them through the storms of life.
IDEALS OF THE SODALITITY
I. PERSONAL HOLINESS. II. CATHOLIC ACTION.
"THE Sodality of Our Lady is a religious body which aims at fostering in its members an ardent devotion, reverence and filial love towards the Blessed Virgin Mary, and through this devotion and the protection of so good a Mother, it seeks to make the faithful, gathered together under her name, good Catholics sincerely bent on sanctifying themselves, each in his own state of life, and zealous, as far as their condition in life permits, to save and sanctify their neighbour and to defend the Church of Jesus Christ against the attacks of the wicked."
THE RULES OF THE SODALITY
DECREE
IN virtue of authority conferred on Us by the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XIII., in the Constitution Omnipotentis Dei, dated the 5th day of December, in the year 1584, and enlarged and confirmed by Sixtus V., Clement VIII., Gregory XV., Benedict XIV., Clement XIII., Leo XII., and Leo XIII., whereby We are empowered to make Rules for Sodalities of Our Lady and, as circumstances and times demand, to change, correct and reform the same, We approve anew and sanction the following Rules, which, gathered from the Common Rules drawn up by Our Predecessors Father Acquaviva in the year 1587
INDULGENCES AND PRIVILEGES OF THE SODALITY
...WHICH THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS HAVE GRANTED TO THE PRIMA-PRIMARIA SODALITY ERECTED IN THE ROMAN COLLEGE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS UNDER THE TITLE OF OUR LADY OF THE ANNUNCIATION AND SS. PETER AND PAUL, AND TO OTHER SODALITIES THAT HAVE BEEN OR SHALL BE AGGREGATED TO IT.