Confraternities which made it their special object to venerate the Blood of Christ first arose in Spain.
Albertini, then priest at San Nicola in Carcere, Rome, where since 1708 devotions in honor of the Precious Blood had been held.
Deeply moved by the misery caused by the French Revolution, he united on 8 December 1808, into a society such as were willing to meditate frequently on the Passion and pray for the conversion of sinners, for the needs of the Church, and for the souls in Purgatory.
The confraternity was canonically erected by Pius VII through his cardinal vicar, 27 February 1809, raised to the rank of an archconfraternity on 26 September 1815.
[1] Prior to this it had been introduced into America by the Passionists, and canonically erected in the numerous houses and parishes founded by them after their arrival in 1844.