Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/481

PASSION-FLOWER. colori^d calyx, ami similarly segmfntcd or absent corolla. Several rows of filamentois i)rocesses spring from within the eup, which is formed by tlie consolidated calyx and corolla. The genus received its name from fanciful persons among the first Spanish settlers in America who imag- ined a representation of the Lord's passion, the filamentous processes being taken to represent the crown of thorns, the three styles the nails of the cross, and the five anthers the marks of (he wounds. On account of the large and beauti- ful flowers, many of the species are cultivated in greenhouses; some are aJso grown in tropical countries for their fruit, particularly Passifiora ediilis, or granadilla (q.v.). Passifiora quad-' ranyularis is a larger edible species known as the large granadilla. One of the best known species is Pussi/lora cwrnlea, a na- tive of Peru and Brazil, extensively gro for its beautiful white, pale blue, or rose-colored flowers. Like most species, it succeeds in the open only in tro]iical and snbtro])ieal climates. Among the popular cultivated species are Passi- fiora gracilis and Passifiora rncemosa. About ten species are natives of the L'nited States, among which are Passifiora incarnata, the ilay-pop of the Southern States, a showy flowered edible fruited species. The passion-flower is propagated by seeds and bj^ cuttings of the young wood.

PASSIONISTS. The name generally applied to the order formally known as '"Barefooted Clerks of the Holy Cross and Passion of Our Lord," founded by Saint Paul of the Cross (q.v.). Their first permanent settlement was made on Monte Argentarn. near Genoa, in 1737: they re- ceived the first Papal approbation as a society of mission preachers from Benedict XIV. in 1741, and their rule, modified in some points, was again confirmed by Clement XIV. in 1769. who four years later gave them the Church of Saints John and Paul on the Ctelian Hill in Rome, now the headquarters of the Order. The members take, besides the usual monastic vows, a fourth to remember and meditate continually upon the sufl'erings of Christ. Their work is principally the conversion of sinners, especially by preaching missions. Their habit is black, with a white heart-shaped piece of stufT sewed on the left breast, in which are represented the instruments of the passion — cross, nails, crown of thorns, etc. The general (prwpositus) is elected by the gen- eral chapter for six years; each house has a rector, chosen for three years. The Order has now eight provinces — four in Italy, one in Eng- land, one in America, one in France, and one in Spain. In 1901 they numbered eighty-seven pro- fessed fathers in the United States (to which they came in 1852), with ten monasteries.

PASSION PLAY. A performance which takes ])lace every tenth year in the village of Oborammergau, in the Bavarian highlands^ In 1033, as an act of gratitude for the cessation of a plague which had desolated the surrounding country, the villagers vowed to represent the passion of Christ every ten years, and have ever since observed their vow. The inhabitants of this secluded spot, long noted for their skill in carving wood and ivory, have a rare iniion of artistic cultivation with perfect simplicity. The personator of Christ considers his part an act of religious devotion; he and the other principal performers are said to be selected for their holy life, and consecrated to their work with prayer. Tlie i)layers, about six hundred in number, are all villagers, who, though they have no artistic instruction except from the parish priest, act their parts with much dramatic power and a delicate appreciation of character. The tJospel narrative is closely followed; the acts .alternate with tableaux from the Old Testament and choral odes. Many thousands of the peasantry arc at tracted by the spectacle from all parts of the Tyrol and Bavaria, among whom the same earnest and devout demeanor prevails as amoni.' the performers. Consult: iStead, The Passiim Play (London, 1890); Grein, Uas Ohframmii- gatier Passionspiel (Leipzig, 1880), See Mys- tery.

PASSOVER (translation of Heb. pesach. a passing over, from piisach, to pass over). The first of the three chief festivals prescribed liv the Pentateuchal codes (Ex. xii.; Lev. xxiii. 4-s'; Xum. ix. 1-14: xxviii. l(i-25; Deut. xvi. 1-8). It- celebration begins on the evening of the f(ur teenth day of Xisan (corresponding to the older Abib) and lasts for eight daj-s. The .Jewish Church associates the festival with the Exodus from Egypt, and this historical character was so impressed upon it as to obscure its original sig- nificance. By a careful study, however, of the passages referring to the Passover in the various Pentateuchal codes, modern scholars claim that they have traced the gradual development of the festival and have .shown that it was a mixture of various elements, originally having notliing to do one with the other. In the first place, dis- tinction must be made between two festivals com- bined in the Passover, viz. ( 1 ) a feast of un- leavened bread known as massoth, and (2) a festival in wliieh the chief rite was the sacrifice of a sheep within the family circle and the sprinkling of the lintels and doorposts of the houses with the blood. This sacrifice was called pesach. Of these two festivals the former is the old Canaanitish harvest festival, commemorative of the first ripening of the corn, which the He- brews naturally adojited when they took posses- sion of the Canaanitish soil. Thanksgiving of- ferings were made on this occasion to Yahweli as the 'Baal,' to whom the land belonged. Since the presentation of such gifts, consisting of the first-fruit sheaf, involved a visit to a Yahweh sanctuary, the occasion became a khag — the an- cient Semitic designation for a mirthful festival with dances and processions at a sanctviary and a sacrificial meal as the symbol of communion between the god and his worshipers. It was cvis- tomary at this festival to eat only unleavened bread, which merelj- represents the usual food during the harvest season, when the people, busy with field labors, did not take time to wait in baking their bread imtil the completion of the slow process involved in the leavening of the dough; hence the festival became known as the Ihag ham-mnssoth, i.e. the festival of unleavened bread. On the other hand, the sacrifice of the pesach stands in no connection with agriculture and is originally a rite of propitiation or lustra- tion observed during a pestilence or on some other speei.al occasion. It consisted in sprinkling with blood the entrance to the house (or tent), which was particularly sacred. It is still cus- tomary among the Bedouins to sprinkle their camels and (locks with blood as a protection against the ravages of a pestilence. This blood