Medal, Catholic Total Abstenence Medal

Historical information

The Catholic temperance movement started in 1838 when Irish priest Fr Theobald Mathew established the Teetotal Abstinence Society in 1838. Fr Patrick Henneberry founded the Catholic Temperance movement in the USA and visited Australia in 1897 winning Australian Catholics to his cause. These medals were worn by Catholics who had taken a pledge of abstinence pictured on the reverse side of the medal.

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