Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/572

 VOTIVE

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VOTIVE

make his appeal the more acceptable he offers some gift, whether on behalf of the living or the dead, to the offended deity. Hence undoubtedly springs (though with it is coupled the vague not ion of the passage to t he next Uf e as of a long journey) the custom of surrounding the buried dead with theii' most valued possessions and favourite wives (Fraser, "Pausanias", II, 173; LyaU, "Asiatic Studies", II, 301). But it has also happened that the practice, based on the true theo- logical concept of religion as a part of justice {do id des), comes of adorning shrines with various objects of gratitude (Cicero, "De deorum natura", III, xxxvii). In this more ordinary sense of the v/ord votive offer- ings can be divided into: (a) things vowed to God or the saints in some trouble or crisis of life; (b) things

Grotto of the Immacu

presented in gratitude for a rec(i\ii\ oi (l(h\iim(i without having been previously piomi^ed

Naturally these votive offerings constitute an ex- tremely varied list. The most common are those which represent the person to whom the favour has been accorded, or the thing that has benefitted under the miracle, or some representation of the actual Divine interposition. Thus, for example, on the day of his marriage, Henry III of England had a golden statue of his queen made and placed on the shrine of St. Edward at Westminster (Wall, "Shrines of British Saints", 228) and a full-length figure of Duke Ales- sandro de' Medici was moulded in wax for the Church of the Annunziata at Florence by Benvenuto Cellini (King, "Sketches and Studies", 259). Again, the offering of a falcon in wax at the shrine of St. Wulstan by Edward I, when, by the intercession of that saint, his favourite bird had been cured (Wall, 141), and of the tail of a peacock at Evesham by an old lady whose pet had recovered through the invo- cation of Simon de Montfort (King, 259), are in- stances of the same custom. At Boulogne and else- where can be seen the model ships offered as ex-votos after deliverance from shipwreck, such as we read of Edward III leaving at the tomb of his father, or such as the Navicella at Rome, a copy made under Leo X of a pagan votive offering to Jupiter Redux (Hare, "Walks in Rome", I, London, 1900, 231). So, too, sometimes a wax taper of the height of the sufferer, or even of his dimensions was brought or sent to be burnt where the cure or favour was implored. Of the pictures of miracles as votive offerings there seem.s no end ("Archajologia", XLIX, London, 1886, 243-300); their number became at times an inconvenience (Acta SS., XIV, May, I, 354), like the numerous crutches, etc., in the grotto at Lourdes or S. Nico]6 at Verona, or SS. Giovanni c Paolo at Venice. There is, moreover, the parallel of the golden boils and blains

placed by Divine command within the Ark (I Kings vi, 11).

We also read of money and valuables being offered as the famous regale of France, which, described in differently as a diamond and a ruby, adorned th tomb of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. Oftei also a trophy of victory (King, 256-7), the banner of i defeated foe (" Itinerarium Regis Ricardi", in "Roll Series", I, London, 1864, 446), or his sword (I Kings xxi, 9), or even that of the victor (as Roland's a Rocamadour, or Athelstan's after Brunanburgh at th shrine of St. John of Beverley, or as the sacred Ston of Destiny offered by Edward I at the tomb of hi namesake the Confessor, after his defeat of th Scotch), or some symbol of office and dignity, as th crowns presented by King Canute at Bury St. Ed munds and elsewhere, or lastly some masterpiece o hterature or art, as Erasmus hung up Greek verses a the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham ("Colloquies" II, London, 1878, 19).

ToMABINO, De donariis ac tabellis votii'is (Padua, 1654); Brane Popular Anliquilies, II (London, 1S49), 374-5; King. Sketche and Studies (London, 1874); Erasmus, Religious Pilffrimagt Colloquies, II (London, 1S7S); Zieman, De anathematibus grceci (Konigsberg, 1885); Reisch. Griechische Weikgeschenke, VII (Vienna, 1890); Rouse, Italian Votive Offerings in Folklore, V, 11 Idem, Greek Votive Offerings (Cambridge, 1902); Wall, Shrine of British Sat'nte, (London, 1905).

Bede Jarrett.

Votive Offices. — A votive office is one not enterec in the uriiiial lalendar, but adopted with a view t( satisfviiiK a s]>ccial devotion. By the Apostolic Con stitut'ion "Divino Afflatu" (1 Nov., 1911) Pius :> abolished all votive offices. Before this action of th( Holy See a votive office might be celebrated, in accord ance with the rules simimai'ized below, either in virtU( of a privilege or in virtue of a custom antedating thi Bull of St. Pius V. Such offices were called votive because their recitation remained optional in princi pie, because it was the object of a privilege; and ever when, after the privilege had been obtained, the: became accidentally obligatory (Decree of the Sacrec Congregation of Rites, 14 June, 1845), it was none th( less true that they originated in an optional devotior and that particular churches or communities mighi not request the privilege of reciting them. They wen distinct from offices ad libitum properly so callec because they had their place in the private or genera calendar under the rubric ad libitum; among the rules to which these were subject was this: If the day doe! not prevent, the compiler of the Ordo may indicat« at will the office ad libitum, either a transferred offic« or even a votive office. Hence a votive office wai not an office ad libitum and, moreover, was never sc designated.

There were two classes of votive offices: (1) Votive offices granted to petitioners, but obligatory after th« concession, e. g. tlie Office of the Blessed Sacrament for Thursday, and that of the Immaculate Conceptior for Saturday, which are found nearly everywhere Others occurred in orders or congregations, such as that of St. Benedict, for Tuesday, in the Benedictini Order. (2) Votive offices granted to the universa Church by Leo XIII and published by the Sacrec Congregation of Rites, 5 July, 1883. There were si> of these offices, one for each day of the week, and they were celebrated under the semiilouble rite. Thejj were: the Office of the Holy .\ngels, for Mondavi of the Holy .Vpostles, for Tuesday; of St. Joseph, fo| \\'ednesday; of the Blessed Sacrament, for Thursday: of the Pa.ssion, for Friday; of the Immaculate ConI ception, for Saturday. This concession wsis thi, result of a Decree modifying the rubrics of translation;

Rules. — (1) For the first class, reference miisl be made, first, to the terms of the indults, whiclj! granted these offices once weekly or monthly on con| (lition that the day did not prevent, and reserved aV the ferias of Advent and I.^nt ; next to the answers c'l