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the poor pagan children". Until the children are able to do this themselves their relatives should do it for thera.

The parish priest is the regular director of the work from the time he introduces the association, and, when there are at least twelve associates, he has a share in the privileges granted to the directors by the Holy See, provided that for the exercise of these

Privileges the requisite permission of the ordinary has een granted in general or has been specially asked for. The same holds good for the assistant priests of the parish, when the pastor has entrusted to one of them the care of matters relating to the association. Four popes and hundreds of other ecclesiastical dignitaries have approved the association and recom- mended it to the faithful. Pius IX, by a Brief of 18 July, 1856, raised it to the rank of a canonical insti- tution, gave it a cardinal protector, and requested all bishops to introduce it in their dioceses. Leo XIII, in an Encyclical letter, "Sancta Dei Civitas" (3 De- cember, 1890), blessed it and recommended it again to the bishops. "It is my earnest wish", he said in 1882, "that all the children of the Catholic world should become members of this beautiful association. ' ' Pius X emphasized its international character, com- paring it to a great army the component parts of which are the various national branches.

The affairs of the association are managed by an international council at Paris, France, consisting of fifteen priests and as many lajTnen. The general director of the association is the presiding officer. This general council hasexclusively the right of general direction and of the distribution of the society's funds. To them various national branches send in their yearly report with the contributions received. It is to be noted that none of the officers receive any compensa- tion for their services. It is estimated that at the present time there are enrolled in the Association of the Holy C'hildhood about seven millions of Catholic children. Fully thirty-two millions of dollars are the result of their generosity, and about eighteen millions of pagan children have thus been saved to the Church. The receipts for 1907-08 were over 8700,000. From this fund 2.30 missions in the various heathen coun- tries were supported. An annual grant is made by the general council in favour of Catholic Indian Schools m the Western States and territories. 1,171 orphan- ages, 7, .372 schools, and 2,480 workshops, etc., share in the yearly alms received from all the Catholic countries. The "Annals of the Holy Childhood", published bi-monthly, is issued in seven languages. Six countries contributed 90 per cent, of last year's fund of $700,000, viz.: Germany, 8278,355; France, $169,9.35; Belgium, .$92,255; Italy, $50,650; Holland; $.31,540; Austria, $30,995. Sum total from these six countries, $655,690. Ireland's contribution for 1907 amounted to .$5,440 and England's to $1,595, these two English-speaking countries being represented in the total amount with 1 per cent.

The association was probably established in the United States by Bishop Forbin-Janson himself. Sev- eral agencies in the East and West managed its affairs for about fifty years. On 1 January, 1893, the work was concentrated into one central agency and confided to the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, with headquarters in Pittsburg, Pa. Very Rev. .\. Zielenbach, C. S. Sp., was its first central director for about four years. Since then Rev. John Willms, C. S. Sp., is general manager, assisted by thirty-two priests as diocesan directors who volunteer their services for this noble cause without anv compensation. The total receipts in the United States from 1893 to 31 October, 1908, were 8319,012.76. About IS.OOO copies of the "An- nals" in English, German. Polish, and French are sent from the central office to the different local branches six times each year.

J. Willms.

Holy Child Jesus, Society of the, was founded in England in 1846 by Mrs. Cornelia Connolly, ni^e Peacock, a native of Philadelphia, U. S. A., who had become a convert to the Catholic Faith in 1835. The society was approved in 1887 by Leo XIII, and the rules and constitutions were confirmed and ratified by the same pontiff in 1893. The constitutions are founded on those of St. Ignatius. The principal object of the society is the education and instruc- tion of females of all classes, whether in day-schools, boarding-schools, orphanages, or colleges for higher education. The religious undertake the instruction of converts, and visiting of the sick and poor, when these works do not interfere with the primary duty of teaching; ladies may be received into houses of the society as boarders, or for the purpose of making retreats. The society is governed by a superior general whose ordinary residence is at the mother- house, Mayfield, England, and who is assisted by a provincial or provincials. America is at present the only province. The superior general is elected by a chapter consisting of representatives of the whole order, and her term of office lasts six years.

The first house of the society was founded at Derby, England, in 1846, but the community was shortly afterwards transferred to St. Leonards-on-Sea, Su.s- se.x, at the advice of Cardinal Wiseman. Here the religious have since built a fine church and .schools. The ruins of "The Old Palace", Mayfield, Sussex, with the farm adjacent were given to the Society in 1863 by Louise, Dowager Duchess of Leeds, n^ Caton, one of the granddaughters of Charles Car- roll of CarroUton. She also made over to Mrs. Con- nelly a farm inTow-anda, Penn., and two thousand acres of land in Lycoming Co., on condition that a branch of the society should be established in America. Accordingly five sisters came over in 1862 and opened a school at Towanda. This undertaking proved unsuccessful, and the community was removed to Philadelphia, and settled in Spring Garden Street. Here they were put in charge of the academy and parochial schools in connection with the Church of the Assumption, whose rector, the Rev. C. Carter, be- friended the society in America in every possible way. In 1804 he made over to the religious the hou.se and farm of the old Quaker establishment at Sharon Hill, seven miles from the city of Phihidclpliia ; and this became the seat of the novitiate and of a flourishing boarding-school. The society now numbers in Eng- land nine houses and many schools for all clas.ses, and more than four thou.sand children are taught by the sisters in the city of Preston alone, in which city there is also a centre for the education of pupil-teachers. A college for the training of teachers of secondary .schools was opened in Cavendish Squ.ire, London, in 1896 by invitation and under the special patronage of Cardinal Vaughan. A house has al.so been founded at Oxford. A convent of the order at Neuilly, Paris, shared the common fate of all religious houses in France, and was closed by order of the French Government in 1904. In America the society pos.sesses houses in Pennsylvania, New York, Massacniisctts, Illinois, Ne- braska, and Wyoming.

Mother Mary St. Peter.

Holy Coat (op Trier and Argenteuil). The possession of the seamless garment of Christ (Or. Xi-T (iv ippa(pof: Lat. tunica inCDUxutUis, John, xix, 23), for which the soldiers cast lots at the Crucifixion, is claimed by the cathedral of Trier and by the pari.sh church of Argenteuil. The Trier tradition allirms that this relic was sent to that city by the Emi)rcss St. Helena. For some time the holders of this opinion based their claim on a document in the ancient ar- chives of the city, the "Sylvester Diploma", sent by Pope Sylvester to the Church of Trier, but this cannot, at least in its present form, be considered genuine.