Cord of St. Thomas Aquinas
Also called the Angelic Warfare Confraternity
St. Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolomeo
According to tradition, St. Thomas Aquinas’ family tried to tempt him to renounce his religious vocation by locking him in a room with a woman of ill repute. When he fended off her advances without hesitation, two angels came and girded him around the waist with a cord. From that moment, he was supernaturally protected from all temptations against chastity.
From this event, there developed the custom of wearing a blessed cord to guard the virtue of chastity, which later became the Angelic Warfare Confraternity under the auspices of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to which St. Thomas belonged. Individuals of any state in life, having received their Confirmation, can enroll in the confraternity and wear a blessed cord around the waist (or a medal around the neck) while praying two special prayers and 15 Hail Marys daily for the protection of one’s own chastity and for all those in the world enrolled in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity.
Given the fragile nature of chastity in an increasingly coarse world, there is a need for Catholic youth and adults, single and married, to fight daily and with intention the temptations against purity, and the Angelic Warfare Confraternity is an effective means for doing so.