Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An association of persons united in a common purpose or profession.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A brotherhood; a society or body of men united for some purpose or in some profession; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, a lay brotherhood devoted to some particular religious or charitable service: as (in the middle ages), the confraternity of bridge-builders. The word is now similarly used in the Anglican and Protestant Episcopal churches. Also called
sodality .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A society or body of men united for some purpose, or in some profession; a brotherhood.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A group of people with a common interest.
- noun A
fraternity or brotherhood.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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To call the confraternity "Lefebvrist" and non-catholic reflects one or other of these positions.
CONFIRMED 2009
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A confraternity is a society of persons associated for some pious object.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913
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The object of the confraternity is the veneration of the Blessed Virgin in her intimate relation to the Heart of Jesus.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14: Simony-Tournon 1840-1916 1913
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Another confraternity was a guild established in 1280 at Bologna, and perhaps elsewhere, which held its meetings in the Carmelite church and from time to time made an offering at a certain altar, but otherwise was entirely independent of the order.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913
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Perhaps the most noteworthy characteristic of the confraternity is the rapidity with which it has spread throughout every portion of the world.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913
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The "voyageurs" form a kind of confraternity in the Canadas, like the arrieros, or carriers of Spain, and, like them, are employed in long internal expeditions of travel and traffic: with this difference, that the arrieros travel by land, the voyageurs by water; the former with mules and horses, the latter with batteaux and canoes.
Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains 1836
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The "voyageurs" form a kind of confraternity in the Canadas, like the arrieros, or carriers of Spain, and, like them, are employed in long internal expeditions of travel and traffic: with this difference, that the arrieros travel by land, the voyageurs by water; the former with mules and horses, the latter with batteaux and canoes.
Astoria, or, anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains Washington Irving 1821
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New Yorker: the scholarly use of statistics, the arcane vocabulary ( "confraternity"), the long list, the lavish use of commas and semicolons.
Fritinancy 2009
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If it pertains to the bishop to erect the confraternity, then the pastor of a church or the superior of a religious house petitions him for canonical erection, giving the kind of confraternity desired, its title, its patron saint, the church and locality where it is to be erected, its directors, and any deviations from the ordinary rules of the confraternity in question, and asking the consent of the bishop for aggregation to the archconfraternity.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913
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Burschenshaft, since the process of initiation necessarily implies the existence of some kind of thiasos ( 'company,' 'confraternity' or 'troupe') to which the initiate makes application and gains admission in order to share the experience of life-change. "
TELOSscope: The Telos Press blog Marcus Michelsen <telosscope@telospress.com> 2010
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