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 IRENE

131

IRENOPOLIS

way furnishes positive and very early evidence of high importance. Suffice it to mention the passages, so often and so fully commented upon by theologians and polemical writers, concerning the origin of the Gospel according to St. John (see John, Gospel of Saint), the Holy Eucharist, and the primacy of the Roman Church. (2) Of a second work, written after the "Adversus Haereses", an ancient literal transla- tion in the Armenian language has recently been discovered. Tliis is the "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching ". The author's aim here is not to confute heretics, but to confirm the faithful by expounding the Christian doctrine to them, and notably by dem- onstrating the truth of the Gospel by means of the Old Testament prophecies. Although it contains fundamentally, so to .speak, nothing that has not al- ready been expounded in the "Adversus Hrereses", it is a document of the highest interest, and a magnifi- cent testimony to the deep and lively faith of Irenteus.

Of his other works only scattered fragments exist; many, inileed, are known only tlirough the mention made of them by later writers, not even fragments of the works themselves liaving come down to us. These are: (3) a treatise against the Greeks entitled "On the Subject of Knowledge " (mentioned by Eusebius); (4) a writing addres,sed to the Roman priest Florinus "On the Monarchy, or How God is not the Cause of Evil" (fragment in Eusebius); (.5) a work "On the Ogdoad ", probably against the Ogdoad of Valentinus the Gnostic, written for the same priest Florinus, who had gone over to the sect of the 'S'alentinians (frag- ment in Eusebius); (6) a treatise on schism, addressed to Blastus (mentioned by Eusebius); (7) a letter to Pope Victor against the Roman priest Florinus (frag- ment preserved in Syriac); (8) another letter to the same on the Paschal controversies (extracts in Euse- bius); (9) other letters to various correspondents on the same subject (mentioned by Eusebius, a fragment preserved in Syriac); (10) a book of divers discourses, probably a collection of homilies (mentioned by Euse- bius); and other minor works for which we have less clear or less certain attestations. The four frag- ments which Pfaff published in 1715, ostensibly from a Turin manuscript, have been proved by Funk to be apocrj'phal. anil Harnack has established the fact that Pfaff himself fabricated them.

The principal editions, not including the "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching", are those of Massuet (Paris, 1710), also in P. G., VII; Stierer (2 vols., Leipzig, 1S4S-53); Harvey (2 vols., Cambridge, 1857). For the fragments see Pitra, "Analecta sacra", II, 188-217; IV, 17-.35, 292-305; Holl, "Fragmente vor- nicanisher Kirchenviiter aus den Sacra Parallela " in "Texte und Untersuchungen ", XX, ii (Leipzig, 1899), 58-84. For the "Proof of the Apostolic Preach- ing" consult Ter-Mek6rttschian and Ter-Minassiantz, "Des heiligen Irenaus Schrii't zum Erweise der apostolischen Verkundigung " in "Texte und Unter- suchungen", XXXI, i (Leipzig, 1907). For the Pfaffian fragments see Funk, "Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen ", II (1899), 198-208; Harnack, "Die PfaiT'schen Irenaus-Fragmente " in "Texte und Untersuchungen", XX, iii (Leipzig, 1900), 1-69.

Ma.s.suet in the preliminar,v dissertations of his edition: Har- NACK. Gexchichle der 'altchristlichm Litteratur, I, 263-88; II. i, 320-33, ,'517-22; Th. Zahn in Realencyk. fiir prot. TheoL. s. v. Irenaufi von Lyon; Bardenhewer, Geschichle der altkiTchlichen Litleratur, I (1902), 496-522; Idem. Patrology, tr. Shahan (St. I/)uis, 1907); Dcfourcq, Saint Irenee in Les Saints (Psiris, 1904); Idem. Saint Irenie in La Pensfe chretienne (Paris. 1905). On the date of the saint's birth see Gwatkin in the Contemporary Review. LXXI (1897). 222-26; Labodrt in Revue biUique. VII (1898), 59-73. Sec also, for his testimony to the Gospel of St. John, GuTJAHR, Die Glaubwiirdigkeit des irenaisehen Zeugnisses iiber die Abfassung des vicrten kanonischen Evajigeliums (Graz 1904), 129-48. For a fuller bibliography see Chevalier, Bio- Bilil, s. V. Irrnfe.

Albert Poncelet. Irene, Empress. See Byzantine Empire.

Irene, Sister (Catherine FitzGibbon), b. London, England, 12 May, 1S23; d. in New York, 14 Aug., 1890. At the age of nine she emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, with her parents, and in 1850 joined the community of the Sisters of Charity at Mount St. Vincent, New York, taking in religion the name of Irene. During her novitiate she taught in St. Peter's parish school, and finally became sister servant there. At that time no public provision was made to take care of abandoned infants. When picked up in the streets, they were sent to the municipal charity insti- tutions to be looked after by paupers. Many were left at the doors of the sisters' schools and houses, in the evident hope that they might receive from them some special consideration. Sister Irene, noting the constant increa.se in the number of these waifs, sug- gested the estalilishment of a foundling asvlinn, .such as had long existed in Kiu-ojie. Arelibislmp McClos- key .sanctioned the project and in lS(i9 Sister Irene was assigned to carry it into effect. After visiting the public homes for infants in several cities she organized a woman's society to collect the necessary funds for the proposed asylum with Mrs. Paul The- baud as its head. By their aid a hou.se (17 East Twelfth Street) was hired, and here on 11 October, 1869, the foundling asylum was opened with a creche at its door. On the evening of the same day it held its first infant, and forty-four others followed before the first month passed. Within a year a larger house (3 Washington Square, North) had to be taken.

In 1870 the city was authorized by the Legislature to give the asylum the block bounded by Third and Lexington Avenues, SLxty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Streets, for the site of a new building, and $100,000 for the building fund, provided a similar amount was raised by private donations. Of the required sum, $71,500 was realized by a fair held in 1871, and 827,- 500 came from three private donations. The new building was opened in Octolier, 1873. The city pays 45 cents a day each for all children cared for under two years of age, and 32 cents for all over that age. It costs (1909) $1000 a day to run the institution, in which from six to seven hundred children are shel- tered, with more than 1500 others on the outdoor list. In addition to what is paid by the city, $40,000 is donated annually by Catholic charity to carry on the work. Since it was opened, 50,000 children have been taken care of by this foundling a.sylum. From eighteen to twenty thousand of the children have been placed in good homes throughout the coimtry, the average of those thus given for adoption being from two and a half to three years. The title of "The Foundling Asylum ", under which it was incorporated in 1869, was changed by legal enactment in 1891 to "The New York Foundling Hospital". In addition to caring for the children, homeless and indigent mothers are also provided for, to the yearly average of five hundred. St. Ann's Maternity Hospital was opened for them in 1880 and in ISSl a children's hos- pital at Siniyten Duyvil on the Hudson. Sister Irene's whole life was given to the care of foundlings, and just before she died she added theSeton Hospital for incu- rable consumptives, the cost of which ($350,000) she collected herself.

Sadlier in Ave Maria (Notre D.-ime, Indiana, 10 Oct., 1896); Brunowe in Catholic Home Annual (New York, 1897); The Freeman's Journal (New York), contemporary files; The Semi- nary (New Y'ork, November, 1896).

Tho.mas F. Meehan.

Irenopolis, a titular see of Isauria, suffragan of Seleucia. Five of its bishops are known: John (325), Menodorus (451), Paul (458), George (692), Eusche- mon (878). The city is mentioned by Hierocles in the sixth century and George of Cyprus in the seventh. It figures in the " Notitia Episcopatimm " of Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch in the sixth century, and in the " Nova Tactica " of the tenth century, as attached to