Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour

rdf:langString Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour

rdf:langString The Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour (CSSS for Congregatio Sociorum Sancti Salvatoris) is an Anglo-Catholic dispersed religious order founded in 1891 at the former Church of the Evangelists in Philadelphia (now the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial). It was subsequently affiliated with the former S. Elisabeth's Church in Philadelphia. CSSS founder William McGarvey became a Catholic in 1908 due to the allowance of non-Episcopal Protestant clergy to preach in Episcopal churches. Many CSSS members followed McGarvey into the Catholic Church, but several continued as clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. The order's core members are called companions, and must be celibate men in holy orders (or candidates for holy orders). Associates of the order may be men or women. It was formally incorporated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on February 21, 1906. During the second half of the twentieth century, several members were connected with the Church of the Annunciation, Philadelphia. In 2022, the Master of the CSSS is Bishop Barry E. Yingling of the United Anglican Church.