MEDAILLE
111
MEDALS
Berlin. 1907-10); Jahrbiicker dea Vereins fur Geschichle Mecklen-
burgs (Scliwerin. 1S36 — ); Schlis. Die Kunst- und Geschichts-
denkmaler dcs Grossherzogluvis Mecklenburg-Schwerin (5 vols.,
Schwerin, 1896-1902).
JOSEPH LiNS.
Medaille, Jean-Paul, Jesuit missionary; b. at Carcassonne, the capital of the Department of Aude, France, 2!) .January, 1618; d. at Auch, the capital of the Department of Gers, France, 15 May, 1689. He entered the .Society of Jesus, 15 August, 1640; and after completing his studies spent a number of years in the classroom, teaching both the lower and higher studies of the college courses and particularly, for the space of six years, philosophy. Later he was ap- plied to the work of preaching, which may be re- garded as his life work ; to this he gave himself up almost exclusively for eighteen years, until advancing age and the infirmities brought on by his laborious and austere life forced him to devote himself to the less fatiguing work of directing sodalities and of hearing confessions, especially of the poor. He was one of the number of illustrious missioners formed in the school of St. Francis Regis of the Society of Jesus, and spent tlie best years of his life in the evangelization of Velay, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Aveyron. His apostolic labours were attended with greater and more lasting fruit, because he established wherever he preached fervent sodalities of men and women who, by all sorts of works of charity, such as instructing children, visit- ing the sick, helping the poor, perpetuated and ex- tended the fruits of his missions. These pious sodali- ties, however, lacked certain elements which Father Medaille regarded as necessary for the stability of his work. Their members, although devoted, were ham- pered in many ways and by many ties in the exercise of their zeal. Father Medaille resolved, therefore, to start a congregation of nuns who should give themselves up wholly and unreservedly to all the spiritual and cor- poral works of mercy. Having matured his plans, he laid them before Mgr de Maupas, who gave them his fullest approval. Shortly after. Father Medaille founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The general idea of the congregation was drawn, at least to a certain extent, from the works of St. Francis de Sales, but the details of its practical development were basetl almost entirely on the constitutions of the Society of Jesus. It is as the founder of this con- gregation that Father Medaille is best known. His active life left him no time for writing ; consequently we have nothing from hii pen, aside from some corre- spondence, except the "Constitutions pour la Congre- gation des Soeurs de Saint-Joseph". These constitu- tions have been incorrectly attributed to Father Peter Medaille, S.J. It is true that Father Peter Medaille contributed much in later years to the establishment on a firm basis and to the spread of the congregation, but at the time of its foundation he was still a novice and had neither the experience nor the authority nec- essary tor so responsible a work.
Prat, Le Disciple de St. Jean Francois Regis, notes supple- mentaires (Paris, 1850), 180 sq.; de Giiilhermv, Menotoge de la Comp. de Jesus, Assistance de France, I (Paris, 1892), 631 sq.
J. H. Fisher.
Medals, Devotional. — A medal may be defined to be a piece of metal, usually in the form of a coin, not used as money, but struck or cast for a commem- orative purpose, and adorned with some appropriate effigy, device, or inscription. In the present article we are concerned only with religious medals. These are more varied even than secular medals, for they are produced not only to commemorate persons (e. g. Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints), places (e. g. famous shrines) and past historical events (e. g. dog- matic definitions, miracles, dedications, etc.), as well as personal graces like First Commimion. Ordination, etc. . but they are also often concerned with the order of ideas (e. g. they may recall the mysteries of our
Faith, such as the Blessed Sacrament or the Divine
Attributes), they are used to inculcate lessons of
piety, are specially blessed to serve as badges of
pious associations or to consecrate and protect
the wearer, and finally are often enriched with indul-
gences.
In the Early Church. — It was at one time doubted whether anything in the nature of a purely devotional medal was known in the early ages of Christianity. Certain objects of this kind were de- scribed and figured by seventeenth-century writers on the Catacombs, and a few such were preserved in museums. All these, however, were regarded with much suspicion before the appearance of an epoch- making article by de Rcssi in the " BuUettino di Archeologia Cristiana" for 1869, since which time the question has been practically set at rest and the au- thenticity of some at least of these specimens has re- mained undisputed. A moment's consideration will establish the intrinsic probability of the existence of such objects. The use of amulets in pagan antiquity
was widespread. The word amulctum itself occurs in
Pliny, and many monuments show how talismans of
this kind were worn around the neck by all classes.
That the early Church should have found the abuse
ineradicable and should have striven to counteract it
by suggesting or tolerating some analogous practice of
an innocent character, is in itself highly probable.
Many parallel concessions of this kind might be
quoted. The letter of Gregory the Great to St. Melli-
tus about the dedication of pagan temples, preserved
to us by Bede (Hist. Eccl., I, xxx), supplies perhaps
the most famous example. Moreover we know that
the same St. Gregory sent to Theodolind, Queen of the
Lombards, two phylacteria — the ca.ses are still pre-
served at Monza— containing a relic of the True
Cross and a sentence from the Ciospels, which her
child Adulovald was to wear around his neck.
This, however, and the practice of wearing "encol- pia", little pectoral crosses, lent itself to abuses when magical formulfe began to be joined to Christian sym- bols, as was regularly the practice of the Gnostics. Hence we find many of the Fathers of the fourth and later centuries protesting more or less vigorously against these phylacteries (cf. St. Jerome, " In Matt.", iv, 33; P. L., XXVI, 174). But that Christians of good name did wear such objects of piety round their necks is certain, and it is consequently probable that tokens bearing various Christian devices, should ha.ve been cast in metal for a similar purpose. In Africa (see "BuUettino di Arch. Crist.", 1891), the moulds have been found in which little crosses were cast with rings to hang them by. It follows therefore that certain coin-like objects, for which there exists good evidence of their being actually discovered in the Cat- acombs, must be regarded as genuine relics of the de- votional practices of the early Church. Two or three of these are specially famous. One. which de Rossi attributes to the close of the fourth century, bears upon
