sodality n : people engaged in a particular occupation; "the medical fraternity" [syn: brotherhood, fraternity]

English

Etymology

From French sodalité or Latin sodalitas, from sodalis ‘companion’.

Pronunciation

• /səʊ'dælɪti/

Noun

1. Companionship.

   • 1968: Those would, he thought, be expatriate writers. He was, of course, one of those himself now, but he was indifferent to the duties and pleasures of sodality. — Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside

2. A fraternity, a society or association.

   • 1963: There’d even evolved somehow a kind of sodality or fan club that sat around, read from her books and discussed her Theory. — Thomas Pynchon, V.
   • 1916: On the wall of his bedroom hung an illuminated scroll, the certificate of his prefecture in the college of the sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. - James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, p. 98)

In Christian theology, a sodality is a form of the Church universal expressed in specialized, task oriented form as opposed to the Church in its local, diocesan form (which is termed modality). In North America, the name sodality is most commonly used by groups in the Roman Catholic Church, where they are also referred to as confraternities. See Sodality (Catholic Church). Sodalities are expressed among Protestants through the multitude of mission organizations, societies, and specialized ministries that have proliferated particularly since the advent of the modern missions movement, usually attributed to Englishman William Carey in 1792.

See also

• Sodality (Catholic Church)
• Sodality of Our Lady

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia entry