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 ORATORY

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ORATORY

by St. Philip is to be gentle rather than severe, and abuses are to be attacked indirectly. " Once let a little love find entrance to their hearts," said St. Philip, "and the rest will follow."

"Preaching" included, as has been said, four ser- mons in succession daily, an almost impossible strain upon the hearers as it would now appear, but the dis- courses at the Oratory had an attraction of their own. Savonarola had already compared the inability of the preachers of his day to awaken dead souls with their subtle arguments and rhetorical periods, to the impo- tent efforts of the flute-players to revivify by their mournful music the corpse of Jairus's daughter, and Bembo in St. Philip's day reiterated this reproach. "What can I hear in sermons", he says, "but Doctor SubtiUs striving with Doctor Angelicus, and Aristotle coming in as a third to decide the quarrel." The ser- mons at the Oratory were free from these defects. They were simple and familiar discourses; the first an exposition on some point of the spiritual reading which preceded them and therefore impromptu; the next would be on some text of Holy Scripture; the third on ecclesiastical history, and the fourth on the lives of the saints. Each sermon lasted half an hour, when a bell was rung and the preacher at once ceased speak- ing. The music, though popular, was of a high order. Palestrina, a penitent of the saint, composed many of the Laudi which were sung. Their excellence excited the admiration of foreigners. John Evelyn in his diary, 8 November, 1644, speaks of himself as ravished with the entertainment of the sermon by a boy and the musical services at the Roman Oratory. Animuccia, choir master at St. Peter's, attended constantly to lead the singing. In close connexion with the Oratory is the Brotherhood of the Little Oratory, a confraternity of clerics and laymen, first formed from the disciples of St. Philip who assembled in his room for mental prayer and Mass on Sundays, visited in turn a hospital daily, and took the discipline at the exercises of the Passion on Friday. They made together the pilgrimage of the seven churches, especially at carnival time, and their devout and recollected demeanour converted many.

The ' ' exercises ", as the Oratory services were called , aroused bitter opposition. The preachers were de- nounced as teaching extravagant and unsound doc- trine, the processions were forbidden, and St. Philip himself was suspended from preaching. He submittetl at once and forbade any action being taken in his fa- vour. At length Paul IV, having made due investiga- tion, sent for him and bade him go on with his good work. Baronius says of these exercises that they seemed to recall the simplicity of the Apostolic times; Bacci testifies to the holiness of many under St. Philip's care. Among the most celebrated members were Baronius, author of the "Ecclesiastical Annals", and the "MartjTology", to prepare him for which work St. Philip obliged him to preach the history of the Church for thirty years in the Oratory ; Bozio Tom- maso, author of many learned works; B. Giovenale Ancina, Superior of the Oratory at Naples, and later Bishop of Saluzzo, a close friend of St. Francis de Sales; B. Antonio Grassi of the Oratory of Fermo; B. Sebastian Valfrd, the "Apostle of Turin ", and founder of the Oratory there. The Oratory Library of S. Maria in Vallicella is celebrated for the number and quality of its contents, among them the well-known Codex Vallicensis. Up to 1800 the Oratory continued to spread through Italy, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, Po- land, and other European countries; in South America, Brazil, India, Ceylon, the founder of which was the celebrated missioner Giuseppe de Vaz. Under Napo- leon I the Oratory was in various places despoiled and suppressed, but the congregation recovered and, after a second suppression in 1869, again revived; many of its houses still exist.

Oratorians, English. — The Oratory was founded XL— 18

in England by Cardinal Newman in 1847. Converted in 1845, he went to Rome in 1846 and with the advice of Pius IX selected the Oratory of St. Philip Neri as best adapted for his future work. After a short noviti- ate at Santa Croce he returned in 1847 with a Brief from Pius IX for founding the Oratory. He estab- lished himself at Maryvale, Old Oscott, where in 1848 he was joined by Father Faber and his Wilfridian com- munity. After a temporary sojourn at St. Wilfrid's, Staffordshire, and Alcester St., Birmingham, the com- munity found a permanent home at Edgbaston, a sub- urb of "that town, in 1854. The institute of the English congregation is substantially that of the Roman. The Fathers five under St. Philip's Rule and carry out his work. In compliance with a widely expressed wish of English Catholics, Cardinal Newman founded at Edg- baston a still flourishing higher class school for boys. A Brotherhood of the Little Oratory is also attached to the community and the exercises are a focus of spirit- ual life. Among the best known WTiters of the English Oratory are, besides its illustrious head. Father Cas- well, a poet. Father Ignatius Ryder, a controversialist and essayist, and Father Pope. A Newman memorial church in the classical style was opened in 1910. The library contains among many valuable works Cardi- nal Newman's series of the Fathers.

The London Oratory. — In 1849 Cardinal Newman sent a detachment of his community to found a house in London. Premises were secured at 24 and 25 King William St., Strand, a chapel was speedily arranged, and on 31 May, Cardinal Wiseman assisted pontifically and preached at the high Mass; Father Newman de- livered at Vespers the sermon on the " Prospects of the Catholic Missioner", now pubUshed in his "Dis- courses to Mixed Congregations". The Catholic Directory of 1849 shows that the Oratory at King Wil- liam St. was the first public church served by a relig- ious community to be opened in the diocese. The ex- ercises of the Oratory, accompanied as they were with hymns composed by Father Fabcr and the Roman de- votions and processions, then strange to England, seemed to many a hazardous innovation. Time proved the popularity of the exercises, and Father Faber's preaching attracted large crowds. His spirit- ual works published year by year increased the inter- est in his Oratory, while the lives of the saints edited by him, forty-two in number, in spite of their literary defects, did a great work in setting forth the highest examples of Christian hoUness. The com- munity removed to their present site in South Kensing- ton in 1S54, and in 1884 their new church was opened in the presence of the bishops of England. Among the writers of the London Oratory may be named, after Father Faber, Father Dalgairns (q. v.); Father Stanton, "Menology of England and Wales" (Lon- don, 1887) ; Father Hutchison, " Loreto and Naza- reth" (London, 1863); Father Knox, "The Douai Diary" (London, 1878), and "Life of Cardinal Al- len" (London, 1882) ; Father Philpin de Riviere, "The Holy Places", and other works; Father John Bowden, "Life of Fr. Faber" (London, 1869); Father Morris, "Life of St. Patrick"; and Father Antrobus, transla- tor of Pastor's "Popes" (vols. I-VI, St. Louis, 1902) and the "Pregi dell' Oratorio".

WoODHEAD, The Institulions of the Oratory (Oxford. 1687); G.-iLLONlo, Vita Beati Philippi Nerii (Rome, 1600, tr. into Italian, Rome, 1601); Bacci, Vita del B. Filippo Neri (Rome, 1622, fre- quently reprinted: tr. into English, 2 vols., 1847; new ed., with illustrations, notes, etc., by Antrobus, 2 vols., London, 1902) ; Idem, Vita con I'aggiunta d'urui notitia d'alcuni suoi compagni per G. Ricci W.P.). tr. into English, The Companions of Si. Philip (London, 1848); Sonzonio, Vita del Santo Patr., Filippo Neri (Venice, 1727; 2nd ed., Padua, 17.33) ; Capecelatro, La Vita di S. Filippo Neri (2 vols., Naples, 1879; tr. into English by Pope, 2 vols., London, 1882); Idem, Card. Newman e la religione Caitolica in InghiUerra (2 vols., Naples, 1859); Faber, The Spirit and Genius of St. Philip (London. 1850); Idem. The School of St. Philip, tr. from Italian (London. 1850) ; Pregi della Congr. dell' Oratorio (Venice, 1825; tr. into English by Antrobus, London, 1881); Marciano, Memorie Historiche della Congr. deW Oratorio (5 vols, fol., Naples, 1693-1702); Centenario di S. Filippo Neri ia