Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/577

 PASSIONISTS

523

PASSIONISTS

they are promoted to Holy orders sub tilulo Pauperta- lis.

The vows made in the congregation are simple, not solemn vows, and they are perpetual, or for life, so that no religious can leave the congregation of his own ac- cord after profession, and no one can be dismissed ex- cept for some grave and canonical reason. For the sanctification of its members and the maintenance of the spirit of the congregation in their community life, besides practising the austerities and mortifications prescribed by Rule and familiar only to themselves, the Passionists spend five hours every day in choir chant- ing the Divine Office or in meditation. They rise at midnight and spend one hour and a half chanting Matins and Lauds. They abstain from flesh meat three days in the week throughout the year, and dur- ing the whole of Lent and Advent; but in cold and severe climates, such as the British Isles, a dispensation is usually granted allowing the use of flesh meat two or three times a week during those seasons. They wear only sandals on their feet. Their habit is a coarse wool- len tunic. They sleep on straw beds with straw pillows. They spend the time free from choir and other public acts of obser- vance in study and spiritual reading, and, that they may ha\-e Our Lord's Sacred Passion continually before their mind, they wear upon Ihcii- breasts and nKUitli^ the badge of tlu' con- gregation on which are inscribed the words Jesu XPl Pan- sio (Passion of Jesus Christ).

Aclil'ilies or Mis- Church and Monastery of

sionary Lahourx. — For the spiritual good of others, the second end of their institute, in Catholic coun- tries they do not ordinarily undertake the cure of souls or the duties of parish priests, but endeavour to assist parish i)rie.sts of the places where their houses are established, especially in the confessional. In non- Catholic countries, and in countries where the popu- lation is mixed, that is, made up of Catholics and non- Catholics, the Rule provides for such circumstances, and they may undertake ordinary parochial duties and the cure of souls when requested to do so by the bishops or ordinaries, and this is the case in England, in the United States of America, and in Australia. Otherwise the congregation could not have been estab- lished or maintained in these countries. Wherever houses and churches of the congregation exist, the fathers are always ready to preach, to instruct, and to hear the confessions of all persons who may have recourse to them. They also receive into their houses priests or laymen who wish to go through a course of spiritual exercises under their direction.

The principal means, however, employed by the Passionists for the spiritual good of others, is giving missions and retreats, whether to public congregations in towns or country places, or to religious communi- ties, to colleges, seminaries, to the clergy assembled for this purpose, or to particular sodalities or classes of people, and even to non-Catholics, where this can be done, for the purpose of their conversion. In their missions and retreats, in general, they follow the practice of other missioners and accom- modate themselves to the exigencies of the locality and of the people; a special feature, however, of their

4.A.*.jfc*.'

^ 1

r, ■

iKI^:%i

work is that every day they give a meditation or a simple instruction on the Passion of Our Saviour Jesus Christ; in some form or other this subject must invariably be introduced in public missions and pri- vate retreats. The Passionists make no particular vow, like that of the Jesuits, to be ready to go on foreign mis- sions among the infidels or wherever the pope may send them, but their Rules enjoin them to be thus ready and at the disposal of the pope or of the Sa- cred Congregation of Propaganda ; and accordingly Passionist bishops and missioners have been engaged in propagating the faith and in watching over the faithful in Rumania and Bulgaria almost since the time of St. Paul of the Cross. At an early period also a few Italian Passionists went to preach the Gospel to the aborigines of Australia, but they had to abandon that mission after many trials and sufferings and the missioners were scattered. Some of them returned to Italy and rejoined their brethren (see Moran, "His- tory of the Catholic Church in Australasia").

In respect to mis- sionary work and la- bours for the good of souls the Passionists profess to serve every- one, never to refuse their services in any department of Our Lord's Vineyard, whether the place to which they are sent be the meanest and poorest, or the people with whom they have to deal be the most thankless or intracta- ble, and even though they may have to ex- pose their lives by at- tending to those af- fected by pestilential diseases.

Growth and Extent. SS. John and Paul, Rome -Before the death of

its founder twelve retreats of the institute had been established in different parts of Italy, and between the year of his death (1775) and 1810 several others had been founded, but all in Italy. These were all closed in the general suppression of religious inst itutes by order of Napoleon. For the Passionists, who had no house out- side Italy, this meant total suppression, as the whole of that country was under the tyrant's sway. After the fall of Napoleon and the return of Pius VII to Rome and to his possessions, the religious orders were speedily restored. The first of the orders to attract the pope's attention was the Congregation of the Pas- sion, although it was the smallest of all. They were the first to resume the religious garb and community life in their Retreat of Sts. John and Paul. This event took place on J6 June, 1814. They soon re- gained their former retreats and new ones were in a short time founded in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia, in Tuscany, and elsewhere.

From the time of the restoration of the congrega- tion under Pius VII it has continued without inter- ruption to increase in numbers and influence. It has branched into many and distant countries outside Italy. At present, retreats of the Congregation exist in England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France (in this country the communities have been disbanded since 1903 by the Republican Government), Spain, United States of America, Argentine Repubhc, Chile, Mexico, and Australia; and Passionist missioners con- tinue their labours under two Passionist bishops in Bulgaria.

The Anglo-Hihernian Province. — The first founda- tion in English-speaking countries in the order of