Angelic Warfare Confraternity

The history of the Angelic Warfare Confraternity begins with the Angelic Doctor himself, St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas was born in 1226 as the youngest son of a noble family in Italy. His parents were so vehemently opposed his decision to become a Dominican that they had him arrested by his own brothers and jailed in one of the family castles. They swore they would not release him until he abandoned the Dominican Order, and they attempted many times to persuade him to change his mind. For a full year he refused to relent.

Finally, after becoming tired of waiting, the brothers of St. Thomas conceived one last plan. They were certain that physical temptation would drive him to break his vow of chastity, after which he would surely abandon his religious vocation. So one night, the brothers introduced a scantily clad prostitute into the room where St. Thomas was being held. The plan did not work as intended. Immediately, St. Thomas snatched a burning brand from the hearth, drove the woman out of the room, slammed the door behind. He then fell to his knees with tears of thanksgiving and prayed to be preserved in his chastity, his purity, and his intention to live the religious life as a son of St. Dominic.

According to the records of his canonization, Thomas fell at once into a mystical sleep and had a vision. Two angels came to him from heaven and bound a cord around his waist, saying, “On God’s behalf, we gird you with the girdle of chastity, a girdle which no attack will ever destroy.” In the records of his canonization, many different witnesses who knew St. Thomas at different points in his life remarked about his evidently high degree of purity and chastity. The angels’ gift preserved St. Thomas from sexual temptation and bestowed upon him an enduring purity that ennobled all his thoughts and actions. Over his lifetime, St. Thomas’s conduct revealed that he had indeed received a special grace of chastity and purity—a grace that he is now ready to share with others through the communion of saints.

The Angelic Warfare Confraternity in Ireland is a spiritual community for the pursuit and promotion of the virtue of chastity. Men are enrolled in order to receive assistance from God in the chaste life, under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas & the Blessed Virgin Mary. Each member of the Angelic Warfare Confraternity wears the medal of St. Thomas, and says daily prayers to receive the special graces that the Lord pours out through the Confraternity.
The Confraternity is an apostolate of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and is directed by the friars of the Order. It has existed in various forms from the 15th century, and was officially established in 1727 by Pope Benedict XIII.

The Confraternity, once very popular in Ireland, no longer has an Irish branch. However, in Autumn of 2026, the Dominican Fathers, in Ireland, intend to relaunch this most essential Confraternity, as a fellowship for Fathers and Sons. Watch this space!