So I was doing a Google Image search on my last name (can’t even remember why), and I came across this picture on the left of Fr. Charles Lowder.  It seems that he was the founder of an Anglo-Catholic movement called the Society of the Holy Cross.

I don’t know much about my paternal genealogy (I plan on changing that soon), so I was a little curious to see whether or not he had emigrated to the U.S. and perhaps done some unpriestly things that might mean I could be a descendant. Technically we’re talking Episcopalian here, and I don’t know when the Episcopalians started allowing their priests to marry, so maybe it wouldn’t have been un-priestly after all. Anyway, there’s no mention of it in the brief history I found on the Society’s website, but there is the mention of a nephew so maybe there’s a distant relationship.

What really caught my eye though is the society’s motto: "in hoc signo vinces."  This happens to be the only Latin I know, because it is also the motto of my fraternity, Sigma Chi.  It means "in this sign, conquer!"  From the beer-addled memories of fraternity life I also remember that this had something to do with Constantine, but that’s really neither here nor there.

In reading the Society’s history I started flashing back to the Sigma Chi history that was pounded into our heads during pledge training.  There were lots of similarities, from the way in which the founders met in secret, to the number of founders (six for the Society, seven for Sigma Chi), to the feeling of moral fortitude relayed in each history.  Even the timing was the same: both were founded in 1855.

I know it sounds heretical comparing a church to a fraternity, but I was just a little taken aback by the similarities. That has to be some kind of sign that there’s a family connection, right?