What on earth could draw a crowd of men like you see pictured above? (No, it’s not a diaconate ordination in Santa Barbara — though it’s close.)

It’s just a typical rally of the Holy Name Society for the Archdiocese of New York in 1936.

As Dr. McNamara points out:

Founded by the Dominicans in the thirteenth century to venerate the name of Jesus, the Holy Name Society was introduced to the United States in the 1860’s. By the 1950’s there were over two thousand societies in the United States, and it was common for most men in the parish to be members. During the first half of the twentieth century, dioceses held Holy Name rallies that attracted crowds of 60,00-100,000 Catholic men. And this wasn’t seen as anything unusual.

Amazing.