“The Angelic Warfare Confraternity” and the Cord of St Thomas Aquinas
“… to preserve the sacred treasure of purity, or to regain it after having lost it.”
This newly translated pamphlet is of great importance to everyone who is interested in St Thomas Aquinas, and for everyone who wants to grow in the virtue of chastity – including through overcoming past or present problems with this virtue.
Editors’ Notes:
One of the great fruits of Leo XIII’s encyclical Aeterni Patris was the revived interest in St Thomas Aquinas and his work.
Surprisingly, this fruit has stood the test of time and weathered even the period following Vatican II. Although, of course, the Common Doctor has been jettisoned by many, he remains an attractive figure around which conservatives continue to gather. Social media is even full of self-proclaimed Thomists, as well as those who demonstrate their cognoscenti credentials by being specifically non-Thomist.
As one comes to know St Thomas, one comes to love him. One of the most obvious things that Catholics look for under such circumstances is some sort of confraternity by which they can make public and external this love.
As luck should have it, there is indeed such a confraternity.
Today it goes by various names. At least in 1941 in the United States, it was called “The Angelic Warfare Confraternity,” and the Dominican Province of St Joseph in the USA still promotes it under this title.
The francophone text which we are publishing here calls it “La confrérie de la Milice Angélique” or that of “Le Cordon de St Thomas d’Aquin” (“The Confraternity of the ‘Angelic Militia'” or “The Cord of St Thomas Aquinas.”)
This article is a translation of this nineteenth century pamphlet about the confraternity. We are publishing it on The WM Review because it is not so easy to find material on the topic from before Vatican II.
So what is this confraternity, and why should we be a part of it?
Brief History
The confraternity is not just about the veneration of St Thomas, or a fan club for enthusiasts of his writing. It is ordered towards the pursuit of the virtue of chastity, under the patronage of St Thomas and the Blessed Virgin.
While Thomism is a rigorous school of scientific theology, it might be surprising to some that St Thomas’s confraternity is ordered towards such a practical end. Perhaps this should itself teach us that intellectual work cannot be pursued without chastity, and remind us that we humans are all animals, even if rational ones – and thus cut off any overweening pride, and help us grow in humility.
The events that gave rise to this confraternity in the life of St Thomas are reasonably well known, and are detailed below and in Part I of our series The Fioretti of St Thomas Aquinas. The confraternity existed in different forms as early as the fifteenth century. It appears to have been given a more organised form by Fr Franciscus Duerweerders OP in seventeenth-century Belgium at the University of Leuven. Innocent X sanctioned this in 1652, and it was officially erected for the universal Church by Pope Benedict XII in 1727.
The cord of St Thomas is a cord with fifteen knots, worn around the waist underneath the clothes. Some people choose to wear a medal instead (described below). Inexpensive medals can be obtained from the Province of St Joseph – more expensive (and better quality) fine replica or antique medals can be found on Etsy and on Ebay.
After having been enrolled by a Dominican or a duly delegated priest, the members are required to wear their blessed cord and recite the prayers (Fifteen Aves, the Prayer to St Thomas and the Prayer of St Thomas). Some people also recite the following prayer each time the put the cord on themselves, perhaps following the various ablutions of life:
“May the Lord gird me with the cincture of purity, and by the merits of St. Thomas Aquinas, extinguish within me every evil desire that I may remain chaste and continent until my death.”
Practical Questions
A confraternity ordered towards chastity and purity seems particularly fitting for the state of the world and its particular dangers. It is not a magic wand, and those who join should not expect to be relieved of all troubles and temptations. Nonetheless, those who join tend to attribute growth and success to their membership.
The American confraternity website has material on relevant issues, but some of it (e.g. the phrasing) is coloured by Vatican II and its spirit. They make powerful claims about the effects of joining the confraternity, including the healing of wounds caused by sin in the faculties of our body and soul, as well as a flood of graces for the combat (which they once unusually described as “spiritual dynamite”). The pamphlet below does not contain a para-liturgical rite of enrolment as such, but does include the blessing for the cord.
In our day, things can be confusing and difficult. For example, how easy is it today for traditionalists to have access to Dominican priests? Can traditionalist priests have the necessary delegation, or bless the cord without it? Is it necessary to buy a cord from some sort of official body? How do you actually wear the cords that they supply? Alternatively, is it sufficient to buy a cord or small rope online, and tie fifteen knots in it oneself? Is it necessary to be enrolled with the official confraternity?
We do not have the answers to all these questions. But, for what it is worth, it seems to us that making any sort of effort is better than none – i.e., even if one cannot be enrolled by a delegated priest or get an “official” cord, it is still good to wear the cord, say the prayers, and be united to the spirit of the confraternity.
To this end, we are happy to publish at last this translation and encourage everyone who loves St Thomas – and everyone who does not! – to join this confraternity, at least in some sense or other. In Studiorem Ducem, Pius XI taught:
“Inasmuch, therefore, as We see the majority of young men, caught in the quicksands of passion, rapidly jettisoning holy purity and abandoning themselves to sensual pleasures, We instantly exhort you, Venerable Brethren, to propagate everywhere, and particularly among seminarians, the society of the Angelic Militia founded under the patronage of Thomas for the preservation and maintenance of holy chastity and We confirm the privileges of pontifical indulgences heaped upon it by Benedict XIII and others of Our Predecessors.
“And that the Faithful may be persuaded the more eagerly to enroll in this Militia, We grant members of it the privilege of wearing instead of a cord a medal round the neck impressed on the obverse with a picture of St. Thomas and the angels surrounding him with a girdle and on the reverse a picture of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.”
Aside from reading the relevant sections in the Summa Theologica, those who are intereted in St Thomas’s treatment of the virtue of chastity could consult Josef Pieper’s interesting work The Four Cardinal Virtues. (NB: Paid links).
St Thomas Aquinas – Pray for us!
Confraternity of “The Angelic Militia” or of The Cord of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Canonically erected in the Church of the Holy Name of Mary of Pied-du-Conrant
Translated by The WM Review from Confrérie de la Milice Angélique ou du Cordon de St Thomas d’Aquin John Lovell, Imprimeur, Rue St Nicolas, Montreal
1863 – Original available here
The combat of St Thomas
A celebrated circumstance in the life of St. Thomas gave birth to this confraternity.
Thomas, who was one day to become the angel of the School and the light of the Church, was born of the ancient and illustrious house of the Counts of Sommacle and Aquino. At the tender age of sixteen, Thomas renounced the brilliant future that awaited him in the world, in order to bury himself in the cloister under the humble frock of the Friars Preachers (the Dominicans).
At the first news of this unexpected resolution, his noble and powerful family was dismayed, and resolved to do everything in their power to oppose the accomplishment of his generous purpose. In vain did he try to flee from Naples to Rome, and from Rome to Paris; surprised on the way by his brother, who had set out in pursuit of him at the head of a troop of armed men, he was brought back as a captive to the castle of Aquino, and confined to a narrow prison.
But as nothing could shake his constancy, his brothers had recourse, to triumph over the heroic young man, to a means suggested by hell.
A woman of ill repute was introduced into the room where Thomas was alone. The struggle was what it should have been, to the glory of the athlete of Christ – that is, short and decisive. Unable to take the side advised in such cases by the wisdom of the Gospel (viz., flight), he adopted another kind of combat, he created new weapons in the presence of an enemy as dangerous as it was unavoidable.
Raising his gaze to Heaven, and taking a burning firebrand, he pushes back and pursues the unfortunate woman who had made herself the instrument of her brothers’ plan.
Then with the same firebrand – the instrument of his victory – he drew a cross on the bare wall of his prison, fell on his knees, returning to God the honour of his triumph, and renewing in this glorious and memorable circumstance the vow which consecrated him entirely to the Lord, he made this admirable prayer.
“My dear Jesus, I well know that every perfect gift, and above all others the gift of chastity, depends upon the powerful influence of Thy grace. I know that without Thee no creature can do anything. Therefore I pray Thee to protect, with Thy grace, the chastity and purity of my soul and body. And should I experience in myself a sensual impression that could sully chastity and purity, do Thou banish it from me, Oh, Thou Who art the supreme Lord of all the powers of my soul. Do this so that I may walk in Thy love and service, with a spotless heart, whilst everyday of my life I sacrifice, pure and chaste, upon the most pure altar of Thy divinity.” (Trans. Fr Matthias Robinson OP, 1941)
The cincture of divine combat
While he was praying, a sweet sleep came over him, similar (as a pious author says) to that of the first man in the earthly Paradise. All the ancient historians relate that the angels visited him in this ecstasy of virginity, and that after congratulating him on a victory which gave one more warrior to their immaculate phalanxes, they girded his loins with the cincture of divine combat, saying to him: “We come to you from God, to confer upon you the gift of perpetual virginity – of which he gives you from this moment the irrevocable grace.”
But Thomas was not made a knight of Heaven and purity without a strong feeling of pain which suddenly called him back to the outside world. At the involuntary groaning of his awakening, his guards came running. But he sent them away, taking care not to tell these rude men of the singular favours he had just received.
His deep humility kept them absolutely hidden for the rest of his life. It was only when he was about to die that he revealed the secret to Father Renaud, his confessor, and the last and most intimate of his friends. He confessed to the end the mercies of the Lord, telling him that since the day of the struggle and triumph, the celestial cord had sheltered him from those temptations so humiliating for the Christian, and from those insulting blows of Satan’s angel, which the great apostle always experienced in spite of the sublimity of his revelations and the immensity of his works.
The cord itself
The miraculous cord that Thomas received from the angels, and which he wore until the end of his life, was given to the house of the Dominicans of Verceil, in Piedmont, by John of Verceil, sixth superior general of the Order.
The material of this celestial cord is white thread, its length is seven palms. At one end is a small gauntlet into which the other end is inserted, so that it can surround the loins. The part that encircles the body is flat and is a little wider than a straw. The rest is divided into two square parts, which are bound by fifteen knots, a little distant from each other, all of the same size, made in a marvellous manner – indicating, without any doubt, the fifteen Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary, to which our pious Doctor was very devoted in imitation of his glorious Patriarch St. Dominic.
The confraternity
On this model, other similar cords were soon made, consecrated by the memory of Saint Thomas Aquinas and by the blessings of the Church. They became the distinctive mark and powerful weapon of a new religious association, called “The Angelic Militia”, whose aim was either to preserve the sacred treasure of purity, or to regain it after having lost it.
This holy legion, armed by the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, spread with marvellous rapidity to all parts of Europe, and has continued to this day. For more than five centuries, in fact, we have seen people from all walks of life, from those whose affluence seconded their inclinations, to those whose poverty could not overcome their passions, gather under the banner of this beautiful and chaste militia.
Kings and queens took pride in wearing the cord of Saint Thomas and the Blessed Virgin; it became especially popular among students in all universities. And who could say how many impure desires it stifled in its chaste embrace, how many heroic virtues it made germinate? Who could count the despairs it prevented, the futures it guaranteed against the dreadful storms of youth? The sacred heritage of a great man and a great saint, the precious monument of the decisive struggle that saved his genius as well as his purity!
Oh, who would give me to see you received, and accredited among the younger generations!
The requirements of the confraternity
To be part of this brotherhood, one must:
Be recorded in the register of the Confraternity, held in the Church of the Holy Name of Mary of the Pied-du-Courant, where it is canonically erected.
To wear day and night a cord as above described, and blessed by a Dominican religious, or by a priest approved by them.
The confreres are to profess a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most pure and chaste mother, and to the Angelic Doctor, Saint Thomas, who preserved to death the purity of body and soul.
Indulgences
The Sovereign Pontiffs, Innocent X, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Benedict XIII, and Pius VII, have granted the following indulgences to this Confraternity:
Plenary indulgence (provided that the conditions required for the gain of any plenary indulgence are fulfilled):
The day of enrolment in the brotherhood
Visiting the Church where the confraternity is erected on the 28th of January, the day of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Thomas, the principal feast of the Confraternity, and praying there for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff;
Once a month, if one has faithfully recited the prayers indicated below every day of the month.
At the time of death.
Members of the confraternity can receive the following partial indulgences:
An indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines for confreres who, having confessed and received Holy Communion, visit the Church of the Holy Name of Mary of Pied-do-Conrant on the following feasts:
Christmas
Easter
Pentecost
The Assumption
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
All Saints’ Day
The Octave of the Dead
The Conversion of St. Paul (25 January)
St. Thomas Aquinas (7 March)
St. Gregory the Great (12 March)
The Feast of the Holy Spirit (1 March)
St. Vincent Ferrer (6 April)
St. Peter the Martyr (29 April)
St. Emmelia mother of St. Basil (30 May)
St. Mary Magdalene (22 July)
St. Dominic (4 August)
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September)
St. Stanislaus of Kostka (13 November)
Blessed Albert the Great (15 November)
St. Ambrose (7 December).
An indulgence of sixty days, whenever they
Accompany the holy Viaticum, or, not being able to accompany it, say an Our Father and an Ave for the sick, or an Our Father and an Ave for deceased confreres
Each time they procure peace between divided spirits, or do any work of mercy;
Each time they perform an act of piety, attend Mass, the Divine Office, or Christian meetings
Each time they say fifteen Hail Marys in honour of the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
Each confrere is invited to recite these fifteen Hail Marys every day, to ask for the grace of purity for himself and for all the other members.
An indulgence of one hundred days each time they say the prayer below, for the daily recitation of which a plenary indulgence is also granted once a month.
Prayers of the Confraternity
Chosen lily of innocence, most chaste St. Thomas, who kept thy baptismal robe without stain; who was made a true angel in the flesh after being girded by two angels, I implore thee to commend me to Jesus, the spotless Lamb, and to Mary, the Queen of Virgins; so that wearing thy holy cord around my loins, I too may receive the same gift as thee; and thus imitating thee on earth, O great protector of my innocence, I may at last be crowned with thee among the angels. Amen.
Pater Noster… Ave Maria… Gloria Patri, etc.
V. Pray for us, St Thomas,
R. That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.Let us pray.
O God, who hast deigned to equip us with the sacred cord of Saint Thomas in the midst of the struggles which we must sustain; grant us, we beseech thee, by his heavenly aid, to conquer joyfully in this struggle against the enemy of our body and soul; so that, crowned with the lilies of perpetual purity, we may merit to receive the palm of the blessed in the midst of the chaste ranks of angels. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
In addition to this prayer and the fifteen Aves, the following prayer of St Thomas is also often said by members of the confraternity.
“My dear Jesus, I well know that every perfect gift, and above all others the gift of chastity, depends upon the powerful influence of Thy grace. I know that without Thee no creature can do anything. Therefore I pray Thee to protect, with Thy grace, the chastity and purity of my soul and body. And should I experience in myself a sensual impression that could sully chastity and purity, do Thou banish it from me, Oh, Thou Who art the supreme Lord of all the powers of my soul. Do this so that I may walk in Thy love and service, with a spotless heart, whilst everyday of my life I sacrifice, pure and chaste, upon the most pure altar of Thy divinity.” (Trans. Fr Matthias Robinson OP, 1941)
By concession of the Reverend Master General of the Order of Friars Preachers (January 22, 1651) and with the approval of the Holy See, the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of the Angelic Militia are admitted to the participation of all the spiritual goods and suffrages of the Order of St. Dominic, during their life and after their death.
The Blessing of the Cord of St Thomas Aquinas
V. Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domine.
R. Qui fecit cœlum et terram.
V. Domine exaudi orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
V. Dominus Vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Oremus.
Domine Jesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi, puritatis amator et custos, obsecramus immensam clementiam tuam: ut sicut ministerio angelorum sanctum Thomam Aquinatem cingulo castitatis cingere, et a labe corporis et animæ præservare fecisti; ita adhonorem et gloriam ejus benedicere + et sanctificare + digneris cingula ista, ut quicumque ipsa circa renes reverenter portaverit, ac tenuerit, ab omni immunditia mentis, et corporis purificetur, atque in exitu suo per manus sanctorum Angelorum tibi digne præsentari mereatur. Qui cum Patre, et Spiritu Sancto, vivis et regnas in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
Aspergantur aqua benedicta.
V. Our help is in the name of the Lord,
R. Who made heaven and earth.
V. Lord, hear my prayer,
R. And let my cries rise up to you.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, lover and guardian of purity, we beseech thine immense goodness, that as thou hast wished to gird Saint Thomas Aquinas with a cord of chastity by the ministry of angels, and hast preserved him from all defilement of body and soul, so do thou deign to bless and sanctify these cords in his honour and glory, so that whoever wears them reverently around his loins and keeps them, may be cleansed from all defilement of mind and body, and merit to be presented to thee at his death by the hands of the Holy Angels. Thou who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever. Amen.
They are sprinkled with holy water.
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Further Reading on St Thomas Aquinas
St Thomas, Universal Doctor – Fr Edward Leen CSSP
The Holy Wrath of St Thomas Aquinas – G.K. Chesterton
On the Five Qualities of Prayer – St Thomas Aquinas
True Law – According to the Teaching of St Thomas Aquinas
What is Thomism? The Twenty-Four Thomistic Theses
St Thomas Aquinas and the Church
Part I: St Thomas’ Intrinsic Authority
Part II: St Thomas’ Extrinsic Authority
The “Angelic Warfare Confraternity” of the Cord of St Thomas – Translation of an 1863 pamphlet
“The Angelic Warfare Confraternity” – Robinson OP, 1941
The Fioretti of St Thomas:
– Part I: His Life
– Part II: His Death
– Part III: The Miracles after his Death
Summa Theologica Trans. by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, (5 vols.) Ave Maria Press, Hardback (and UK readers) and Paperback (and UK readers). Also online at New Advent and iPieta.
Summa Theologiae, Aquinas Institute (8 vols.) Latin-English, based on the English Fathers’ translation, without the Supplementum parts. (And for UK readers) Supplementum I-68 (and UK readers) Supplementum 69-99 (and UK readers)
St Thomas Aquinas – Summa Contra Gentiles. Aquinas Institute in 2 vols: Vol. I (Books I-II) and Vol. 2 (Books III-IV) and for UK readers here and here. Budget single-volume from Aeterna Press (and for UK readers) and online at iPieta or Aquinas.cc
Aquinas – Opuscula I, from the Aquinas Institute (UK readers), containing the following:
On the Principles of Nature – Available online
On Being and Essence – Available online.
St Thomas Aquinas – Catena Aurea (and for UK readers). 4 vols, line-by-line commentary on the four Gospels from the Fathers of the Church, assembled by St Thomas Aquinas and translated by Cardinal John Henry Newman. Published by Baronius Press.
Tradivox VI: Aquinas, Pecham, and Pagula (UK readers), including St Thomas Aquinas’s Catechetical Instructions. An arrangement of other Opuscula in catechetical form. (ca. 1260)
St Thomas Aquinas’s scriptural commentaries are being published by the Aquinas Institute in English and Latin. Here are some of the options below – they are online here, and it is possible to buy single volumes of the commentaries below:
Gospels of St Matthew and St John – four volumes (and for UK readers)
The Letters of St Paul – complete set of five volumes (and for UK readers)
Job (and for UK readers)
Isaias (and for UK readers)
Gospel of St Matthew (and for UK readers). Published by the SSPX, in English.
Anger – The Doctrine of the Mystical Body According to the Principles of St Thomas Aquinas (and for UK readers). Internet Archive. Draws together several texts for which there is a bit of a lacuna in the Summa itself.
Glenn – A Tour of the Summa. A compressed one-volume account of the Summa. (UK readers)
Pegues – Catechism of the Summa Theologica for the use of the Faithful (and for UK readers)
G.K. Chesterton – St Thomas Aquinas. Classic biography. (UK link)
Foster – The Life of St Thomas Aquinas – Biographical Documents (UK readers). Online at Internet Archive.