Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/51

 SISTERS

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SISTINE

Mother Aloysia's term of office had expired 19 July, 1889, and she was succeeded by Sister Ann Regina (d. 16 May, 1S94). The community at GrcensburR, Pa., at present number more than three hundred. Their St. Joseph Academy at the mother-house is flourisliing; they teach about thirty parochial schools in the Dioceses of Altoona and Pittsburg and conduct the Pittsburg Hospital and RoseUa Foundling Asylum in Pittsburg.

From 1865 to 1880 the sisters in Cincinnati opened thirty-three branch houses, one of these being the St. Joseph Foundling and ^Iaternity Hospital, a gift to Sister Anthony from Joseph Butler. In 1869 a site for a mother-house, five miles from Cedar Grove, was purchased. The first Mass was offered in the novitiate chapel, 24 October, 1869, by Rev. Thos. S. Byrne, the chaplain, the present Bishop of Nash\'ille, Tennessee. In 1882 the building of the new mother-house began under his direction. Before its completion Mother Regina Mattingly died (4 June, 1883). Mother Josephine Har\^ey again as- sumed the office. In 188.5 the new St. Joseph was burned to the ground. The present mother- house was begun at once under the superintendence of Rev. T. S. Byrne. Mt. St. Mary Seminary, closed since the financial troubles, was now used for the sisters' novitiate. In July, 1886, the sisters took possession of the west wing of the mother-house, and the following year the seminarj' reopened. Mother Josejihine Harvey resigned the office of motlier in 1S.SS, and was succeeded by Mother Mary Paul Hayes, who filled Mother Josephine's unexpired term and was re-elected in July, 1890, dj-ing the fol- lowing April. Mother Marj' Blanche Davis was ap- pointed to the office of mother, and held it until July, 1899. During her incumbency the Seton Hos- pital, the Glockner Sanitarium at Colorado Springs, St. Joseph Sanitarium, Mt. Clemens, Mich., and Santa Maria Institute for ItaUans were begun; additions were made to the mother-house. During the administration of Mother Sebastian Shea were built: the St. Joseph Sanitarium, Pueblo; the San Rafael Plospital, Trinidad; the St. Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the St. Vincent Academy, Al- buquerque; and the Good Samaritan Annex in Clifton. Mother Mar>- Blanche resumed the duties of office in 1905, and was re-elected in 1908. During these terms a verj- large addition was built to the Glockner Sanitarium and to the St. Mary Sanitarium, Pueb- lo; the Hospital Antonio in Kenton, Ohio; a large boarding school for boys at Fayette\dlle, Ohio; the new Seton Hospital was bought; the new Good Sa- maritan Hospital was begun. Many parochial schools were opened, among them a school for coloured chil- dren in Mempliis, Tennessee.

The community numbers: about 800 members; 74 branch houses; 5 academies; 2 orphan asylums; 1 foundUng ;isylum; 1 Itahan institute; 11 hospitals or sanitariums; 1 Old Ladies' Home; 53 parochial schools throughout Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Col- orado, and New Mexico.

Sister Mary .'Vgnes,

Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, a

congregation founded in 1877 in England to honour in a particular manner the maternal Heart of the Blessed Virgin, especially in the mystery of Calvary. The si.sters make an entire con.secration of them- selves to her, and aim at imitating her virtues. They devote themselves to the sick and dying, which is their principal exterior work. They nurse the sick in their own homes, and also receive them in the hospitals and nursing-homes attached to their con- vents. They make no flistinction of cla.s.s, national- ity, or creed, and exact no charge for their services, but accept any offering which may bi* made them. Besides the personal attendance on the sick, they are

bound to pray continually for the dying, and in the novitiate watch before the Blessed Sacrament, both by day and night, praj-ing for the d^-ing. When circumstances require it, the sisters may engage in various forms of mission work, especially in poor districts. The rules received final approbation from Leo XIII in 1893. The order conducts houses in: Italy (1 in Rome, 1 at Florence, 1 at Fiesole); Eng- land (3 in London, 1 at Nottingham); Ireland (1 at Limerick, 1 in Fermoy); Malta (1); United States (Chicago); Australia (2 at Sydney, 1 at Adelaide); South Africa (Port Elizabeth). The sisters when in the convent wear a black habit and blue veil, with a white cloak in the chapel; when nursing, the habit is of white linen, with a blue veil.

An association of pious women, known as "Pie Donne" or "Affihated", are aggregated to the order, and share in its prayers and good works, some re- siding in their own homes, others living in the con- vent, though in part separated from the community. A confraternity is attached to the order, called the Calvary Confraternity, the members of which assist those in their last agony by their prayers and, if possible, by personal attendance.

Mother M. P.'Vtrick.

Sistine Choir. — Although it is known that the Church, from her earliest days, employed music in her cult, it was not until the time of her emergence from the catacombs that she began freely to display her beauty and splendour in sacred song. As early as in the pontificate of Sylvester I (314-35) we find a regularly-constituted company of singers, imder the name of schola cantorum, living together in a building devoted to their exclusive use. The word schola was in those days the legal designation of an association of equals in any calling or profession and did not primarily denote, as in our time, a school. It had more the nature of a guild, a characteristic which clung to the papal choir for many centuries. Hilary II (461-8) ordained that the pontifical singers live in community, while Gregory the Great (590- 604) not only made permanent the existing institu- tion attached to St. John Lateran and including at that time in its membership monks, secular clergy, and boys, but established a second and similar one in connexion with the Basilica of St. Peter. The latter is supposed to have served as a sort of preparatory school for the former. For several centuries the papal sckola cantorum retained the same general character. Its head, archicanlor or primicerius, was always a clergjTnan of high rank and often a bishop. While it was his duty to intone the various chants to be followed by the rest of the singers, he was by no means their master in the modern techni- cal sen.se.

It is at the time of the transfer of the papal see from Rome to Avignon in the thirteenth century that a marked change takes place in the institution. Innocent IV did not take his schola caniorum with him to his new abode, but provided for its continu- ance in Rome by turning over to it properties, tithes, and other revenues. Community life among the singers seems to have come to an end at this period. Clement V (130.5-14) formed a new choir at Avignon, consisting for the most part of French singers, who showed a decided preference for the new developments in church music — the (U.chanl and faUibnrdoni, which hiui in the meantime gained great vogue in France. When Gregorj- XI (1370-8) returned to Rome, he took his singers with him .and amalgamated them with the still-exist ing, at least in name, ancient xchola caniorum. Before the sojourn of the papal Court at Avignon, it had been the duty of the schola to accompany the pope to the church where he held station, b<it after the return to Rome, the custom established at Avignon of celebrating all pontifical