Bona Mors Confraternity

The Roman Catholic Bona Mors Confraternity (lLatin for "Good" or "Happy Death") was founded on 2 October 1648, in the Church of the Gesù, Rome, by Vincenzo Carafa,[1] seventh General of the Society of Jesus.

The Bona Mors Confraternity began as an association, called the "Congregation of Our Lord Jesus Christ dying on the Cross, and of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, his sorrowful Mother".

In 1827 Leo XII gave to the director general the power to erect and affiliate branch confraternities in churches not belonging to the Society of Jesus, and to give them a share in all the privileges and indulgences of the archconfraternity.

James Joyce makes reference to Bona Mors in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, where the confraternity prayers are recited at Clongowes at Benediction on the first Sunday of the month.

[11][12] According to the St. Vincent's manual[13] there are two rules to observe (neither binding under pain of sin): Among the devout practices specially recommended to the members of the Confraternity, are the performance of works of mercy, to visit the sick, and to accompany the dead to the grave, and to pray for the repose of their souls.