Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/218

 OBLATES

18S

OBLATI

are engaged in mission work. The English province founded its novitiate in Wihnington, Delaware, 23 September, 1903, and transferred it to Childs, Md. (1907). A scholasticate is attached. The Fathers in Wilmington conduct a high school for boys, and are chaplains of several religious com- munities, the county alms-house, the state insane hospital, the Ferris Industrial School for boys, and the county and state prison. In 1910 the parish of St. Francis de Sales, Salisbury, Md. (1209 square miles with a population of 70,C)00), was confided to the Oblates.

In Walmer (Kent, England) they have a board- ing school for boys, the chaplaincy of the Visita- tion Convent and Academy of Hoselands, and a small parish in Faversham. To this province belongs the Vicariate Apostolic of the Orange River. (For the Vicariate Apostolic of the Orange River and the Apos- tolic Prefecture of Great Namaqualand, see Or.\nge River, Vic.\ri.\te Apostolic of the.)

H.UIUON, Vie de St. Franfois de Sales (1909), I, 428 seq., 487; n, 164. 27.5; (Eums de Ste de Chanlal, ed. Plon, IV. 593; VII, 602; Catholic World, LXXIV, 234-243; Echo of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, I, 6-8, 145-51.

J. J. ISENRING.

Oblates of Saint Frances of Rome. See Frances OF RoiiE, S.\i.\t; Oblati.

Oblati, Oblatse, Oblates, is a word used to de- scribe any persons, not professed monks or friars, who have been ofTered to God, or have dedicated them- selves to His service, in holy religion. It has had various particular uses at different periods in the history of the Church. The children vowed and given by their parents to the monastic life, in houses under the Rule of St. Benedict, were commonly known by the name during the century and a half when the custom was in vogue, and the councils of the Church treated them as monks — that is, until the Council of Toledo (6.56) forbade their acceptance before the age of ten and granted them free permission to leave the monastery, if they wished, when they reached the age of puberty. At a later date the word "oblate" was used to describe such lay men or women as were pensioned ofT by royal and other patrons upon monaateries or benefices, where they lived as in an almshouse or hospital. In the eleventh century, it is on record that Abbot Wil- liam of Hirschau or Hirsau, in the old Diocese of Spires, introduced lay brethren into the monastery. They were of two kinds: the/ra(re.s barbati or conversi, who took vows but were not claustral or enclosed monks, and the oblati, workmen or servants who vol- untarily subjected themselves, whilst in the service of the monastery, to religious obedience and observance. Afterwards, the different status of the lay brother in the several orders of monks, and the ever-varying regulations concerning him introduced by the many reforms, destroyed the distinction between the con- versus anfl the oblalus. The Cassinese Benedictines, for instance, at first carefully diflferentiated between convern, cnmmixtii, and nblati; the nature of the vows and the forms of the habits were in each case specifi- cally distinct. The cnnversun, the lay brother prop- erly so called, made solemn vows like the choir monks, and wore the scapular; the commissus made simple vows, and was dressed like a monk, but without the scapular; the oblalus made a vow of obedience to the abbot, gave himself and his goods to the monaster}', and wore a sober secular dress. But, in 162.5, we find the conversua reduced below the status of the commis- sus, inasmuch as he was permitted only to make simple vows and that for a j-ear at a time; he was in fact un- distinguishable, except by his dress, from the oblalus of a former century. Then, in the later Middle Ages, oblalus, con/rater, and donalus became interchange- able titles, given to any one who, for his generosity or special service to the monastery, received the privilege

of lay membership, with a share in the prayers and good works of the brethren.

Canonically, only two distinctions were ever of any consequence : first, that between those who entered re- ligion "per modum professionis" and "per modum simplicis conversionis", the former being monachi and the latter oblati: secondly, that between the oblate who was "mortuus mundo" (that is, who had given him- self and his goods to religion without reservation), and the oblate who retained some control over his person and his possessions — the former only {plene oblalus) was accounted a persona ccclrsiaslica, with enjoyment of ecclesiastical privileges and immunity (Benedict XIV, "De Synodo Dioce.", VI).

Congregations of Oblates. Women. — (1) The first society or congregation of oblates was that founded in the fifteenth century by St. Frances of Rome, to which the name of Collatines has been given — apparently by mistake. St. Frances, wife of Lorenzo Ponzani, gathered around her (in 142.5, according to Baillet) a number of widows and girls, who formed themselves into a society or confraternity. In 1433, as their own annals witness, she settled them in a house called Tor de' Specchi, at the foot of the Capitol, giv- ing them the Rule of St. Benedict and some constitu- tions drawn up under her own direction, and putting them under the guidance of the Olivetan monks of S. Maria Nuova. In the same year she asked confirma- tion of her society from Eugenius IV, who commis- sioned Gaspare, Bishop of Cosenza, to report to him on the matter, and some days later granted the request, with permission to make a beginning of observance in the house near S. Maria Nuova, while she was seek- ing a more commodious habitation near S. Andrea in Vinci. They have never quitted their first establish- ment, but have greatly enlarged and beautified it. The object of the foundation was not unlike that of the Benedictine Canonesses in France — to furnish a place of pious seclusion for ladies of noble birth, where they would not be required to mix socially with any but those of their own class, might retain and in- herit property, leave when it suited them, marry if they should wish, and, at the same time, would have the shelter of a convent enclosure, the protection of the habit of a nun, and the spiritual advantages of a life of religious observance. They made an oblation of themselves to God instead of binding themselves by the usual profession and vows. Hence the name of oblates. The observance has always been suffi- ciently strict and edifying, though it is permitted to each sister to have a maid waiting on her in the convent and a lackey to do her commissions outside. They have a year's probation, and make their oblation, in which they promise obedience to the mother presi- dent, upon the tomb of St. Frances of Rome. There are two grades amongst them : the " Most Excellent ", who must be princesses by birth, and t;he "Most lllu.s- trious", tho.se of inferior nobility. Their first presi- dent was Agnes de Lellis, who resigned in favour of St. Frances when the latter became a widow. After her death, the Olivetan general. Blessed Geronimo di Mirabello, broke off the connexion between the oblates and the Olivetans. The convent and treasures of the sacristy have escaped appropriation by the Italian government, because the inmates are not, in the strict sense, nuns.

(2) Differing little from the Oblates of St. Frances in their ecclesiastical status, but unlike in every other respect are the Donne Convertite delta Marhlalena, un- der the Rule of St. Augustine, a congregation of fallen women. They had more than one house in Rome. Without any previous novicesliip, they promise obedi- ence and make oblation of themselves to the mona.s- tery of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Lucy. At Or- vieto there are similar houses of oblate penitents under the Rule of Mount Carinel.

(3) The Congregation of Philippines (so named