Duties of Membership

Full members of the SSIM are duty bound to observe the following practices:

1. To say a Pater Noster, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri (in Latin) whenever visiting medieval churches, cathedrals, chapels or shrines which had once been Catholic places of worship. In doing so they are to pray to Almighty God for those who worshipped there in former times, especially the loyal Priests who offered mass there. They are to make an act of reparation for those who abandoned the Faith of our fathers and for the wrongs which may have been committed there. If the relics of the saints or venerable images are preserved in such places, members are to venerate them in a manner appropriate to Catholic practice. An intention should be offered for those who currently worship God in those places that they may come to the knowledge of the Truth and that all Christians may soon be united with the See of Peter.

2. To observe the precepts of the Church

3.To pray regularly for fellow members

4. Priest members of the SSIM are to offer Mass for the members of the society at least once each year.

Society Prayer

O Holy Justin, you vigorously defended the sacramental mysteries of the Church and taught the folly of the Cross to a pagan world. From your place in heaven, protect with your prayers, our Holy Father Pope N that he may rule the church on earth with confidence and faithfulness and fearlessly proclaim the good news to the world. With countless martyrs through the ages you suffered death in Rome; guide the Catholic Church, the one true church of Jesus Christ, as it witnesses to the Truth in an hostile world. [Keep in your special care the people of our lands; pray that God may once again raise up saints and martyrs for his glory in these islands.] Through your merits, which God has crowned with the grace of the beatific vision, give your heavenly protection to the members of our Society that they may always reject falsehood and remain loyal to the faith. Amen.

Visiting Ancient Sites

I'm happy to post on this blog reports and pictures from Members of SSIM who have made visits to ancient places associated with our Catholic heritage in order to fulifl the obligations. Please email them to me at Magister.SSIM@ntlworld.com or send them as comments to this post.

Among the roses of the Martyrs.
Brightly shines S Justin.

God grant us increase!

I have been humbled by the rapid increase in the number of people expressing an interest in joining SSIM. If there are any Friars out there who would like to apply that will mean the three main groups of religious will be represented (Monks, Friars and Canons Regular). Do please spread the word and pray that more and more people will join us in our apostolate which combines an interest in catholic history, ecumenical endeavor, spiritual works of mercy and visiting beautiful places.

During the course of the summer we hope to be able to hear mass as a group and I will post detials of that as soon as they are available.

S Pancras (of Rome) Martyr

Next Tuesday, 12th May, is the Feast of S Pancras who was martyred in Rome around 304. His cult probably came to England via S Augustine of Canterbury in 597; Augustine having been sent here by Pope S Gregory the Great. We know that Augustine dedicated a chapel at his monastery in Canterbury to S Pancras, no doubt because the monastery Augustine had been prior of in Rome, prior to his mission to the Angles, had been very close to S Pancras's tomb.

Our Society has S Pancras as one of its Martyr patrons precisely because through this history he bridged Rome and England. We are fortunate to have a small fragment of relic, kindly sent to us by a priest in Rome, just as Pope Vitalian sent relics of Pancras to the King of Northumbria in the 7th century.

Largely because of this connection some members of the Society made a pilgrimage today to Old S Pancras Church in London. Having first attended the Solemn Mass at the London Oratory, sung by the Provost, the Very Revd Ignatius Harrison, we made our way to the church, situated behind St Pancras International Station.

Although the current building has only existed in its present form since the 19th century there has been a pace of worship on the site since 314 AD. In the custody of the current Anglican parish is a sixth century altar stone, reputedly the original property of Augustine and there are signs of the original church in the stonework. The question remains as to whether its dedication to S Pancras pre-dates the arrival of Augustine.

S Pancras, pray for us!

That we may be worthy of the promises of Christ!

The blog is here

After a flurry of interest in SSIM in blogosphere over the last few days we've decided to launch our own blog!

I'm very pleased that our numbers are beginning to grow steadily - both ordinary members resident in the UK or Ireland and more surprisingly, associate members living abroad.

During the Summer I shall have the pleasure of admitting the Revd Robert Penhallurick of the Diocese of Columbus Ohio as Chaplain to our Associate Members.

If you've stumbled on this blog and are interested in finding out more about us and perhaps in applying for memebership then do get in touch or visti the website

S Justin Martyr, Pray for Us!