Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/526

 PARASCEVE

476

PARAY-LE-MONIAL

dignitaripfi. The "Guiii Kclesiastica do ArRontina" for 1910 gives the total number of elergy (parish priests aiuT chaphiins) for the diocese as Oti; no men- tion, however, is here made of priests belonging to rehgious institutes engaged in educational work in the diocese. The conciliar seminary (Calle Urquiza, Parand), under the direction of a rector, vice-rector, and five professors, hiis an aggregate of forty-three students in all its departments. The Benedictine Fathers have an agricultural school at Victoria, and the Capuchins conduct a college for boys at Concordia, both in Kntre Kios. There are nine parochial schools in lOntre Hios and one in Corrientes. Educational institutions for girls and charitable institutions of various kinds are conducted by the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, the Religious of the Perpetual Adoration (Adoralrices), Servants of the Holy Spirit, Sisters of St. Francis, of St. Joseph (Lyons), and of the Garden, Vincentian Sisters, Belgian Tertiaries, Sisters of the Poor of St. Catherine of Siena, Carmelites (Tarragona), Mercedarians, and Tertiaries of Charity and of Carrael. Pious and charitable societies well represented in the diocese are the Acci6n Cat61ica, the Apostleship of Prayer, the Confraternities (both for men and for women) of St. Vincent of Paul, Associa- tion for the Propagation of the Faith, Confraternities of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and of Carmel, Daughters of Mary, and the peculiarly national Society of Our Lady of Itati.

The Diocese of Corrientes also embraces Misiones. Rev. Luis A. Niella has been appointed bishop by the pope.

La Diocesis del Parand en el quincuaglsimo aniversario de su ereccidn canonica (compiled under the direction of the Diocesan Jubilee Commission, Buenos Aires, 1909); Guia Eclesidstica de Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1910).

Claudio Poyet.

Parasceve (Or. -n-apaaKevri) seems to have sup- planted the older term irpoaippaTov^ used in the tran.s- lation of Judith, viii, 6, and in the title — not to be found in Hebrew — of Ps. xcii (xciii). It became, among Hellenistic Jews, the name for Friday, and was atiopted by Greek ecclesiastical writers after the writing of "The teaching of the Twelve Apostles". .\j)parently it was first applied by the Jews to the afternoon of Friday, then to the whole day, its ety- mology pointing to the "preparations" to be made for the Sabbath, as indicated in the King James Bible, where the Greek word is translated by "Day of Prep- aration". That the regulations of the Law might be minutely observed, it was made imperative to have on the Parasceve three meals of the choicest food laid ready before sunset (the Sabbath beginning on Friday night); it was forbidden to undertake in the afternoon of the sixth day any business which might extend to the Sabbath; Augustus relieved the Jews from certain legal duties from the ninth hour (Josephus, "Antiq. Jud.", XVI, vi, 2).

Parasceve seems to have been applied also to the eve of certain festival days of a sabbatic character. Foremost among these was the first day of the unleav- ened bread, Nisan L5. We learn from the Mishna (Pesach., iv, 1, 5) that the Parasceve of the Pasch, whatever day of the week it fell on, was kept even more religiously than the ordinary Friday, in Judaea work ceasing at noon, and in Galilee the whole day being free. In the schools the only question discussed regarding this particular Parasceve was when should the rest commence: Shammai said from the very be- ginning of the day (evening of Nisan 13); Hillel said only from after sunrise (morning of Nisan 14).

The use of t he word Parasceve in the Gospels raises the (juestion concerning the actual day of Our Lord's crucifixion. All the Evangelists state that Jesus died on the day of the Parasceve (Matt., xxvii, 62; Mark, XV, 42; Luke, xxiii, .54; John, xix, 14, 31), and there can be no doubt from Luke, xxiii, 54^56 and John, xix,

31, that this was Friday. But on what day of the month of Nisan did that particular Friday fall? St. John distinctly points to Nisan 14, while the Synop- tists, by implying that the Last Supper was the Paschal meal, convey the impression lliat Jesus was crucified on Nisan 1.5. But this is hardly reconcilable with the following facts: When Judas left the table, the disciples imagined he was going to buy the things which were needed for the feast (John, xiii. 29) — a purchase which was impossible if tlic tVa>l h:i'l Ih liuii; after the Supper, Our Lord and Ins .lisriplrs left the city, as also did the men detailed to an<'sl llim — this, on Nisan 15, would have been contrary to Ex., xii, 22; the next morning the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover; moreover, during that day the Council convened; Simon was apparently coming from work (Luke, xxiii, 26); Jesus and the two robbers were exe- cuted and were taken down from the crosses; Joseph of Arimathea bought fine linen (Mark, xv, 46), and Nicodemus brought "a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pound weight" (John, xix, 39) for the burial; lastly the women prepared spices for the embalming of the Saviour's body (Luke, xxiii, 55) — all things which would have been a desecration on Nisan 15. Most commentators, whether they think the Last Supper to have been the Paschal meal or an antic- ipation thereof, hold that Christ, as St. John states, was crucified on the Parasceve of the Pasch, Friday, Nisan 14.

Lives of Clirist l)v DiDON. Fouard, Le CAMua etc.; Plummer, T/ie6V,.. /'.---., ,',.;,, I., ,>?;. J, .',. .:i|.i» n.lix A (Cambridge, 1905); WESTfnii / ■ //if Gospe/s, note on TAe

Day i>l I' ■ • 1 I -:'■), 3.35-42; Patrizi, De

Evangdii, 1 1 1 , ui , I ' ilMiM , I ^ J .. ,, Calmes, UEvangile selon Saint-Jean U^ariH, 1U04;; .SiAi'tEH. L'l Palestine au temps de J&sun- Chrisl (Paris, a. d.).

Charles L. Souvat.

Paray-le-Monial, a town of five thousand in- habitants in the Department of Saone-Loire, Diocese of Autun, France. It is indisputable that Paray

Chapel of the Visitation, Parat-le-Monial

(Paredum; Parodium) existed before the monks who gave it its surname of Le Monial, for when Count Lambert of Chalon, together with his wife Adelaide and his friend Mayeul de Cluny, founded there in 973 the celebrated Benedictine priory, the borough had already been constituted, with its a:diles and com- munal privileges. At that time an ancient temple was dedicated to the Mother of God (Charter of Paray). The Cluny monks were, 999-1789, lords of the town.

Protestantism made many proselytes here; but in 1618 the Jesuits were summoned, and after a century there remained only a f(^w Protestant families, who have long since disappeared. In order to complete the work, Pere Paul de Barry, the author of " Pensez- y-bien", in 1678 brought thitlier the Visitandines.

Paray-le-Monial has become a much-frequented place of pilgrimage since 1873, as many as 100,000 pilgrims arriving yearly from all parts of Europe and America. The most venerated spot is the Chapel of the Visitation, where most of the appari-