Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/628

 WATER

564

WATERFORD

close by the former log church rises now the city of Spokane with its 104,402 inhabitants and its eight splendid CathoUc churches. The httle school origi- nally intended for Indian boys was also forced to yield its place. In 1881, when the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad had transformed the spot into a village, white children gradually superseded the native element. In 1887 Gonzaga College was opened, and in 1912 was raised to the rank of a uni- versity; at the present time it has more than 500 students. The Jesuit Fathers maintain another college for boys at Seattle, with about 300 pupils, and are about to open an institution at Tacoma.

While eastern Washington was principally in the care of the Jesuits, western Washington was not less fortunate in possessing the efficient help of the Oblate (O.M.I.) Fathers, especially among the Indian tribes of Puget Sound. The name of Father Chirouse stiU lives among them. For almost thirty years they worked in the Diocese of Nesqually till their places could gradually be supphed by secular clergy, when they retired northward to British Columbia, of which they have had exclusive charge to the present day. The secular priests, as their number increased, were little by little restricted to narrower limits; instead of remaining missionaries in the stricter .sense of the word their centres of action have been multiplied, whereby they are not only able to know better the mo- mentary spiritual wants of their several districts, but also to "meet more efficiently the individual claims of their cosmopolitan charges. Thus, when in 1895 Bishop Junger bequeathed the office to his successor, the present head of the diocese, the vast State of Wash- ington contained a scattered Catholic population of about 25,000 in charge of 38 secular priests and 23 priests of rehgious orders. At present the last census shows in the same territory a Cathohc population of nearly 100,000 taken care of by 161 priests, of whom 94 are secular clergy and 67 belong to rehgious orders.

De Smet, Missions de VOregon et voyages aux Montagues Rocheuses (Gand, 1S4S) ; Cronau, Amerika, Geschichte seiner Entdeckungbis au/ die neuesleZeil (Leipzig, 1892); Statistics of the State of Washington (Olympia, 1910); Educational Directory of the State of Washington (Olympia, 1911) ; B.*rton, Legislative Manual (Tacoma, 1889); Gonzaga (Spokane, 1911-12). a student publi- cation; Population Statistics of the State of Washington (Olym- pia, 1911).

W. J. Metz.

Water, Baptismal. See Baptism. — XV. Adjuncts of Baptism.

Water, Holy. See Holt Water.

Water, Liturgical Use of. — Besides the holy water (q. v.) which is used by the Church in so many of her rites of blessing, and besides the water employed in the washing of feet and hands (see Washing of Feet and Hands) and in the baptismal font (q.v.), water has its recognized place in the ritual of every Mass and inacertain number of pontifical and extraor- dinary oflnces which include some form of washing. With regard to the water mingled with the wine in the Mass, the Fathers from the earliest times have tried to find reasons why the Church uses a mixed chalice though (he Gospel narrative implies that Christ consecrated pure wine. St. Cyprian (Ep. Ixiii, 13) discussing this question sees an analogy to the union of Christ with His faithful people, but, as the Council of Trent points out (Sess. XXII, De Missa, vii), there is besides this a reference to the flowing of blood and water from Christ's side, from which the Church, the dispensatrix nf the sacraments, was formed, like a new Fve from thr side of the new Adam. It was probably in allusion to the former symbolism (i. e. the union of the people with Christ) that the earlier "Ordines romani" directed the choir {schola cantorum) to present water at the Offertory

of the Mass. We may note also that it Las long been the practice of the Greek Orthodox Church to pour a little hot water into the chaUce immediately before the Communion, and though there seems no reUable evidence for any such custom in the early centuries, the absence of this usage among the Latins is made by the Greeks a serious ground of reproach. In the purification of the chahce, water is again used in the second of the ablutions, but the present practice according to which the ablution of wine and water is drunk by the priest did not always obtain in the Middle Ages. On the other hand there was a very general custom of providing water, or wine and water, for the communicants to drink as a " purification " after Communion. In fact this is prescribed in the existing rubrics of the Missal (Rit. serv., X, 6), though the " Caeremoniale episcoporum" on Easter Day speaks of a purification of wine alone. Further, a strictly Uturgical use of water is also made in such offices as the laying of the foundation stone of a church and the consecration of a cemetery, though here the blessing consists only of the five prayers com- monly used for making ordinary holy water. In the blessing of a bell, however, and in the dedication of a church special features occur. In the case of the bell an entirely new prayer, "Benedic, Domine, banc aquam", is inserted, and with the water thus conse- crated the bell is afterwards completely washed inside and out. For the consecration of a church a special lustral water is prepared after the bishop has entered the building, and the various ingredients, viz. salt, water, ashes, and wine, before being mixed together, are blessed with prayers which difter entirely from those employed in the case of holy water for common use. This lustral water is sprinkled while the bishop seven times makes the circuit of the altar and three times that of the interior of the church. The rite of washing the high altar on Maundy Thurs- day is performed in the Roman basilicas and some other churches with a certain solemnity, and was in old times an even more noteworthy function than at present. For this purpose wine and sometimes rose water were employed as well as the pure element. Again at the ojjening of the holy doors in the Roman basilicas when the year of jubilee begins, the peniten- tiaries, provided with sponges and towels, wash and wipe the threshold, after the previously obstructed door has been un walled. Less strict Ij' Uturgical is the use of water which is blessed with various special formulae for devotional purposes. The official "Ritu- ale romanum" contains a number of such blessings, for example "Modus benedicendi aquam S. Ignatii", with other similar formula; in honour of St. Adelhaid, St. Willibrord, St. Vincent Ferrer etc., particularly. The pui^jose of this is generally medicinal and there is in particular a long blessing of the "water of St. Hubert" against the bite of a mad dog.

The reader may be referred to the books mentioned in the article Holy W.\ter; cf. nlsn S^hrod in Kirchenlexikon, s. V. Weihwasser; Th.vlhoff.r. ;-/.■-,,,« iln-iburg, 1883-93); and for the Middle Ages especialK luw/. />/.■ kirchlichen Benediktionen (Freiburg. 1909). See funlj. r tlir lummentaries of Catalan:, Pontificak Romanum (Piii i,-, l&OOi, and Rituale Romanum (Rome, 1757); and Thurston. The Laity atul the Unconsecrated Chaliceva The Month (October, 1911).

Herbert Thurston.

Waterford and Lismore, Diocese of (Water- FORDiENSis ET LisMOKENsis), suffragan of Cashel. This diocese is almost coterminous with the ancient Celtic territory of Decies; it comprises the County of Waterford (except five townlands) with a considerable portion (two baronies and iiart of two others) of Tipperary County, .'us well as a small .area (12,000 acres) of County Cork. The population is 131,643, of whom 124,.3(>7 tire Catholics, ministered to by one bishop and 122 .secular priests. The diocesan chapter, in abeyance since the seventeenth century, was revived with modifications in the last decade. In