7 thoughts on “Religious Name Changes for Men up at CatholicMom!”

1. Very interesting article, Kate. It is an intriguing topic. THought I would post this again. I put it in a comment a couple years back but is pertinent now and there have been new additions to the community since then, so new names.

   We are friends with the men in a newer religious community in our locale – the Servants of Christ Jesus – http://www.scjesus.org/community/. They have been in existence for about 14 years, and have had ordained clergy just the past almost 4 years. We have known them since they were seminarians and have known most by the birth name and then had to adjust to the new name when it was given. The names are given by the community/superior to the brother following prayer and consultation. The name patterns are very specific to their charism. The first name is an apostle and the second name comes from a Jesuit saint (the community has an Ignatian spirituality).

   So far they have:
   Fr. John Ignatius (Apostle: St. John the Evangelist, Jesuit: St. Ignatius Loyola)
   Fr. Paul Kostka (Apostle: St. Paul, Jesuit: St. Stanislaus Kostka)
   Fr. James Claver (Apostle: St. James the Greater, Jesuit: St. Peter Claver)
   Br. Thomas Gonzaga (Apostle: St. Thomas, Jesuit: St. Aloysius Gonzaga)
   Br. Jude Borgia (Apostle: St. Thaddeus Jude, Jesuit: St. Francis Borgia)
   Br. Peter Xavier (Apostle: St. Peter, Jesuit: St. Francis Xavier)
   And 3 who discerned out of the community:
   Br. Peter Francis (Apostle: St. Peter, Jesuit: St. Francis Xavier)
   Br. Philip Loyola (Apostle: St. Philip, Jesuit: St. Ignatius Loyola)
   Br. Nathanael Colombiere (Apostle: St. Nathanael/Bartholomew, Jesuit: St. Claude de la Colombiere)

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   • Thank you for reposting this!! If I’d remembered it was in the comments, I totally would have included it!! I love these names!

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2. That’s awesome that you knew Franciscan friars with names like Fr. Callistus and Fr. Capistran! You’re a Siena alum, right? I’m a current student at Siena, though I don’t know any friars here with particularly unusual names. There’s Fr. Larry (Lawrence), Fr. Sean, Fr. Dennis, Fr. Linh (who came to the US as a Vietnamese refugee as a child), Fr. Mark, Br. Ed, Br. George, etc. Nothing too out of the ordinary

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   • Yes!! I love that you’re there now!! Those were the only two friars that I knew with obviously religious names (maybe some of the others did too, but weren’t as obvious?) — I graduated in 2000 and they both died only a few years later. Is Fr. Julian Davies still there? I wondered about his name …

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     • I actually do remember meeting a friar named Fr. Julian! Long story short: we had a scavenger hunt during RA training this summer and one of the items on the list was a taking a picture with a friar. My staff and I (Hennepin Hall!) just walked right into the friary, and Fr. Julian happened to be sitting in the lobby 😂

       One of my friends mentioned an elderly friar she knows who lives on campus whose name is Fr. Ignatius. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a religious name.

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     • That’s hilarious!! And yes, I bet Ignatius is his religious name! I drive by campus fairly frequently and stopped into the Writing Center this summer for a meeting. I loved my time there!

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3. Such interesting info! Thank you!

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