Early Edmundites
The Society of Saint Edmund (Latin: Societas Patrum S. Edmundi) also known as the Edmundites, is a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men in the Catholic Church founded in 1843, in Pontigny, France, by Jean Baptiste Muard. The congregation is named after Saint Edmund.The members of the congregation add the postnominal letters S.S.E.
History
Members of the Society, based in Pontigny, fled to the United States through Montreal, Canada in 1889 after widespread anticlericalism seized France. The Society of St. Edmund settled in Winooski, Vermont, and established Saint Michael's College in 1904.The original motherhouse is at Pontigny, but since the expulsion of the religious institutes the superior general resided at Hitchin, England.
In the early 20th century, the congregation had two houses in the United States: a missionary house and apostolic school at Swanton, Vermont, for the training of young men who wish to study for the priesthood and the religious life; and a college at Colchester, Vermont, with 12 fathers, 8 scholastics, and 100 pupils. Saint Michael's College has since expanded to 2,000 undergraduates and 650 graduate students. Source: Wikepedia
Founded in honour of Saint Edmund, last canonised Archbishop of Canterbury
Today is the Feast of Blessed Boniface of Savoy, his successor and the last beatified Archbishop of Canterbury
The Edmundites are no longer accepting members. This the statement on their website. A vestige of its former self staffed by laity who in earlier generations would have become religious and who, I suspect, are vociferous advocates of the laity grabbing power away from the priesthood.
As the first Edmundites extended charity to the needy, the poor and the fallen away, the Society’s mission continues in Vermont, Alabama, and Connecticut. At its June 2022 general chapter, lay representatives highlighted the solid foundations on which the Society’s ministries will continue to build.
Although the general chapter elected for a second term Father David Cray, S.S.E., to serve as Superior General, it recognized that given the Society’s current size and age, it is into “completion” and will no longer accept candidates for membership. As a canonical congregation of pontifical rite, however, the Society of St. Edmund will exist until the last member dies or renounces his vows.
During the coming years, the Edmundites will work closely with the boards and lay leaders of its various entities to identify concrete steps to honor its heritage and continue the legacy of the Society and of its works into the future.
The Society of St. Edmund intends to live out its mission, adopted in 1986. That mission recognizes lay participation in the life and mission of the church is vitally needed. The Society’s original mission endeavored to engage the alienated and estranged and bring them back into communion with God and the Catholic Church. That task is never finished or completed.
In the words of the founder of the Edmundite Missions, “We will do the best we can, with what little we have, to serve those most in need.”
The late Bishop Moses Anderson who was an Edmundite
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