St John Henry Newman, Victoria
Updated: 11DEC2025
Cui Servire Regnare Est | To Serve is to Reign
The Guild of Saint Stephen
The Guild of Saint Stephen is a worldwide group for altar servers, founded in England in 1904 by Father Hamilton McDonald, who started a society at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in London. In 1905, Pope Pius X officially recognized the Guild at Westminster Cathedral, and in 1906, the Sacred Congregation of Rites made it an archconfraternity prima primaria, linking all parish branches. The Guild grew over the years, and in 1934, Pope Pius XI permitted all altar server guilds to join the Archconfraternity at Westminster. This status allows the creation of altar serving groups (confraternities) in local Catholic parishes and schools, linking them to the original Guild of St. Stephen at Westminster Cathedral in London.
The Guild has three aims as set out in its constitution:
-
To encourage, positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Church’s liturgy and so contribute to the whole community’s participation in a more fruitful worship of God.
-
To provide altar servers with greater understanding of what they are doing so that they may serve with increasing reverence and prayerfulness and thereby be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life.
-
To unite servers of different parishes and dioceses for their mutual support and encouragement.
