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Secret societies were founded to promote certain ideal aims, to be obtained not by violent but by moral measures. By this, they are distingushed from conspiracies and secret plots which are formed to attain a particular object through violent means. Secret societies may be religious, scientific, political or social (Kirchenlex., V, p. 519).
Mar 20, 2024 · History | Updated: March 20, 2024 | Originally Published: March 7, 2016. Eight Secret Societies You Probably Haven’t Heard Of. Many of these selective clubs peaked in popularity in the 18th and...
- 3 min
- Jackie Mansky,Sonja Anderson
Catholic Church. Opus Dei (Work of God) was founded in Spain in 1928 by Catholic priest Josemaría Escrivá. Its stated mission is to help its lay and clerical members to seek Christian perfection in their everyday occupations and within their societies.
- 2 October 1928; 95 years ago
- Fr. Josemaría Escrivá
- 95,318 (2018)
Jan 30, 2023 · Opus Dei's secretive nature has attracted criticism since its early days, with other Catholic groups, in particular the more liberal Jesuits, likening it to having Freemasons or the mafia ...
- Jessica Pearce Rotondi
- The Knights Templar. The Knights Templar were warriors dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The military order was founded around 1118 when Hugues de Payens, a French knight, created the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon—or The Knights Templar for short.
- The Freemasons. The freemasons loom large in American history—after all, 13 of the 39 men who signed the U.S. Constitution were Masons. Founding Fathers like George Washington, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Paul Revere all counted themselves as members of the fraternal order.
- The Illuminati. The initiation of an Illuminatus. The Illuminati was founded by professor Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria on May 1, 1776. Weishaupt, chafing at the power of the conservative Catholic Church and the Bavarian monarchy, sought to cast aside organized religion in favor of a new form of “illumination” through reason.
- Skull and Bones. Skull and Bones members from the class of 1861. The Order of Skull and Bones is a secret society founded at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1832.
Secret societies were founded to promote certain ideal aims, to be obtained not by violent but by moral measures. By this, they are distinguished from conspiracies and secret plots which are formed to attain a particular object through violent means. Secret societies may be
The Company of the Blessed Sacrament (French: Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement), also sometimes referred to as the Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament, was a French Catholic secret society which included among its members many Catholic notables of the 17th century.
