'"[1] He goes on to write that "[t]he choice of Mary as patron reflected the strong Marian element in Leunis's personal piety, but it was also probably considered appropriate for the age of the members.
When the persecutions started in the seventeenth century (see Toyotomi Hideyoshi), [the Confraternities] proved to be the underground institution in which Christian faith and practices were maintained and transmitted to the next generation.
[8] In 1767, the Society of Jesus was expelled from Latin America, and in 1773, with the suppression of the Jesuits by Pope Clement XIV through the brief Dominus ac Redemptor, the congregations "become one of the normal works of the universal Church.
In addition, Pope Pius XII, through the apostolic constitution Bis Saeculari (1948), gave special honour to the Sodality of Our Lady by summarising its history and relevance.
Pope Pius XII issued the Apostolic Constitution Bis Saeculari on 27 September 1948, to mark the 200th anniversary of the "Golden Bull" of Benedict XIV.
Bis Saeculari praised the Sodality for its "numerous and great services to the Church" and said of the sodalists that "Indeed in propagating, spreading and defending Catholic doctrine they must be considered among the most powerful spiritual forces."
He illustrates the point by adding that "the fact that they always had the common good of the Church at heart and not some private interest is proved by the unimpeachable witness of that most brilliant series of sodalists to whom Mother Church has decreed the supreme honours of the Altars; their glory throws lustre not merely on the Society of Jesus but on the secular clergy and on not a few religious families, since ten members of the sodalities of Our Lady became founders of new religious orders and congregations."
"[citation needed] These Children of Mary Sodalities first embraced the pupils and orphans of the schools and institutions of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.
Young women went through a period of aspirancy of six months prior to acceptance as a fully-fledged child of Mary, who had the right to wear the distinctive blue cape.
[citation needed] The first of its rules states that the Sodality "is a religious body which aims at fostering in its members an ardent devotion, reverence, and filial love towards the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Christian Life Community maintains that following the suppression of the Society of Jesus, "In the eighteenth century membership increase[d] vastly, from 2,500 groups to 80,000.
[8] For six years St. Francis de Sales worked, during his student life, in the sodality of the College of Clermont at Paris as member, assistant, and prefect.