Association for a Happy Death. The BONA MORS (Happy Death) Confraternity is very old, founded in the year 1648 and approved by Sovereign Pontiffs. “A good BONA MORS Manual should provide for three classes of persons: the living, the dying, and the dead.” Thus does this manual “aid the living to prepare for a happy death, assist the dying to die in holy confidence, and move the faithful on earth to hasten the eternal rest of the souls in purgatory.”