Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/676

 WHITFIELD

614

WHITSUNDAY

Algeria and R' dames, intending to open missions in Soudan, were massacred by their guides. In 1878 ten missionaries left Algiers to establish posts at Lakes Victoria Nj'anza and Tanganyika. These now form the present Vicariates Apostolic of Northern Nyanza, Southern Nyanza, Unyanyembe, Tanganyika, Nyassa, and Upper Congo. In 1894 the mission of French Soudan was founded. The missions of the Sahara are grouped in a prefecture Apostolic. In 1880, at the request of the Holy See, the White Fathers established at Jerusalem a Greek Melchite seminarj' for the formation of clergy of this rite. The society is composed of missionary priests and coadjutor broth- ers. The members are bound by an oath engaging them to labour for the conversion of Africa according to the constitutions of their society. The mission- aries are not, strictly speaking, a religious order, and may retain their own property; but they may expend it in the society only at the direction of the superiors. One of the chief points in the rule is in regard to com- munity life in the missions, each house being obliged to contain not less than three members. At the head of the society is a superior-general, elected every six years by the chapter. He resides at Maison-Carr^e, near Algiers. Those desiring to become priests are admitted to the novitiate after their philosophical studies, and one year of general theology. The three last years are spent at the scholasticate of Carthage in Tunis. The society admits persons of all nationali- ties. Recruiting houses are found in Quebec (Can- ada), Belgium, Holland, Germany, and France, in which are received those not yet ready for the novi- tiate. The costume of the missionaries resembles the white robes of the Algerian Arabs and consists of a cassock or garicloum, and a mantle or burnous. A rosary and cross are worn around the neck in imita- tion of the meshaha of the marabouts. The society depends directly on the Congregation of Propaganda. The White Fathers succeeded in establishing srnaU missions among the Berbers of Jurjura (Algeria), there being at present nine hundred and sixty-two Christians; but the regions bordering on the great lakes and the Soudan show the best results. The number of neophytes in all the vicariates (June, 1909) was 135,000; the number preparing for baptism 151,480. A test of four years is imposed on those desiring to be baptized. To religious instruction the missionaries add lessons in reading and writing, and teach also, in special classes, the tongue of the Euro- pean nation governing the countrj'. The brothers form the yoimg blacks for trades and agriculture. The number of boys in the schools (June, 1909) was 22,281. In July, "1910, the society numbered: 600 priests; 250 brothers; 70 novices, with 80 pupils in the theological classes. In the houses of postulants for the novitiate were 72 pupils.

Heimbucher. Die orden u. Kongregalionem der kathol. Kirche, III (Paderborn, 190S). 504-10; Ml':siones calholica (Rome, 1907); Lives of Cardinal La\'igerie by Batoj.ird (Paris. 1886), Klein (Paris, 1897). and Clarke (London, 1890); Ghussenmatr. Documents biogr, (Paris, 1888).

John Forbes.

Whitfield, James. See Baltimohe, Archdio- cese OF.

Whithorn Priory, in Wigtownshire, Scotland, founded about the middle of the twelfth century, in the reign of David 1, by I'Vrgus, Lord of Galloway, for Premonstraten.sian, or White, Canons. The canons of Whithorn formed the chapter of the Diocese of Galloway, which was re-established about the same time, also by Fergus, the old succession of bishops having died out about 796. The prior stood next in rank to the bishop, as we see from the order of signa- tories to an episcopal charter early in the thirteenth century; and he and his community enjoyed (he right of electing the bishop, although this right was occa- Bionally overruled in favour of the secular clergy by

the Archbishop of York, of which see Galloway was a suffragan for several centuries. The fuU hst of priors has not been preserved; among them were: Maurice, who swore fealty to King Edward I of England in 1296; Gavin Dunbar (1514), who rose to be Archbishop of Glasgow; and James Beaton, suc- cessively Archbishop of Glasgow and of St. Andrews, and chancellor of the kingdom. Whithorn was long a noted place of pilgrimage, owing to its connexion with the venerated memory of St. Is'inian. Many Scot- tish sovereigns, among them Margaret (queen of James III), James IV", and James V, made repeated pilgrimages to the saint's slirLne, and left rich offerings behind t hem . The monast ery, t hus endowed, became opulent, and its income at the dissolution was esti- mated at over £1000. The last prior (Fleming) was committed to prison in 1563 for the crime of saj-ing Mass. The whole property of the priory was vested in the Crown by the annexation act of 1587, and was granted in 1606 by James VI to the occupant of the See of Galloway when he established EpiscopaUanism in Scotland in 1606. It continued to belong to the bishopric until the revolution of 1688, at which date that see was the richest in the kingdom next to St. Andrews and Glasgow. The priory church, which served also as the cathedral of the diocese, had a long nave without aisles, a choir of about the same length, and a lady chapel beyond. In 1684 the nave and western tower were still intact; but the existing re- mains consist only of the roofless nave and the exten- sive vaulted crj'pts constructed under the eastern end of the church. Such restoration as was possible has been carefully carried out by the third Marquis of Bute.

The Five Great Churches of Galloway (Edinburgh, AjTsh. and Gall. Archa!ol. Assn., 1899),169-96.-n-ith a completeseriesofdraw- ingsof ^he ruins; Maxwell, Hisl, of Dumfries and Galloway (Edin- burgh, 1896), 22, 48 sq.; Gordon, Monaslicon. Ill (London, 1875), 318-21; Walcott, The Ancient Church of Scotland (Lon- don, 1874), 223-28; Chalmers, Caledonia. V (Paisley, 1890), 410- 20: Bellesheim, Hist, of Cath. Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1887-90), I, 303; III, 73; Robertson, Scottish Abbeys and Cathe- drals, II (.Aberdeen, 1891), 42.

D. O. Hdnter-Blair. Whitman Massacre. See Oregon.

Whitsunday, or Pentecost, a feast of the uni- versal Church which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ, on the ancient Jewish festival called the "feast of weeks" or Pentecost (Ex., xxxiv, 22; Deut., xvi, 10). Whitsunday is so called from the white garments which were worn by those who were baptized during the vigil; Pentecost, in German PJingsten (fiftieth), is the Greek for "the fiftieth " (day after Easter). Whitsunday, as a Chris- tian feast, dates back to the first century, although there is no evidence that it was observed, as there is in the case of Easter; the passage in I Corinthians (x\'i, 8) probably refers to the Jewish feast. This is not surprising, for the feast, originally of only one day's duration, fell on a Sunday; besides it was so closely bound up with Easter that it appears to be not much more than the termination of Paschal tide. That Whitsunday belongs to the Apostolic times is stated in the seventh of the (interpolated) fnvgments at- tributed to St. Irena'us. In TertuUian (De bapt., xix) the festival appears as already well established. The (iallic [lilgrim gives a detailed account of the solemn manner in which it was obser\-ed at Jerusa- lem ("Peregrin. Silviir", etl. Geyer, iv). The Apos- tolic Constitutions (V, xx, 17)" say that Pentec9St lasts one week, l)Ut in the West it wius not kept with an octave until at quite a late date. It appears from Berno of Reichenau (d. 104S) that it was a debatable l)oint in his time whether Whit.sunday ought to have an octave. .\t present it is of equal rank with Easier Sun<lay. During the vigil formerly the catechumens who remained from Easter were