PENITENTIAL
637
PENITENTIAL
canons and the penitential discipline they represent
were introduced to the Continent by Anglo-Saxon
missionaries, and were at first received unfavourably
(Council of Chalons, 813; Paris, 829); finally, how-
ever, they were adopted and gradually mitigated.
(See Canons, Collections of Ancient.)
See bibliographies to Penance and Theology, Moral; MoHIN, Commentarius historirus de disciplina in adminis. sacra. p<snit. (Paris. 1651); Wasserschleben, D, Bussordnungen d. abendl. Kirche (Halle, 1851) ; Schmitz, i>, Bussbiicker u. d. Buss- diszipHn d. Kirche (Mainz, 1883, 1898) ; Funk, Kirchengeschicht. Abhandl. I (Padcrborn. 1897), 155-209; Ballerini, De antiquis collectionibus canonum in P. L., XLVI ; Tardif. Hist, des sources du droit canonique (Paris, 1887). A. BoUDINHON.
Penitential Orders, a general name for religious congregations whose members are bound to perform extraordinary works of penance, or to provide others with the means of .atoning for grave faults. This class includes such congregations as the Angelicals, Capu- chins, Carmelites, Daughters of the Holy Cross of Liege, Third Order of St. Dominic, Order of Fonte- vrault. Third Order of St. Francis, Daughters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyons, Magdalens, Sacchetti, etc., which are treated under their separate titles. Like- wise all eremitical foundations were, at least in their origin, penitential orders. Other congregations which come under this heading are: —
(1) Penitents or Hermits of St. John the Baptist: (a) A community near Pampelona in the Kingdom of Navarre, each of the five hermitages being occupied by eight hermits leading a life of mortification and silence, and assembling only for the chanting of the Divine Otfice. They received the approbation of Gregory XIII (c. 151.5), who appointed a provincial for them. Over the light brown habit of rough ma- terial confined by a leathern girdle was worn a short mantle, and about the neck a heavy wooden cross, (b) A community founded in France about 1630 by ^Iichel de Sabine for the reform of abuses among the hermits. Only those of the most edifying lives were chosen as members, and rules were drawn up which were ajiproved for their dioceses by the Bishops of Metz and LePuy en Velay. The hermits were under the supervision of a visitator. A member was not permitted to make his final vows until his forty-fifth year, or until he had been a hermit for twenty-five years. Over the heavy brown habit and leathern belt was worn a scapular and a mantle. Similar com- munities existed in the Dioceses of Geneva and Vienne.
(2 ) Onlo pirnilentice ss. Martyrum, or Ordo Maries de Metro de panitentia ss. Martyrum, a congregation which flourished in Poland and Bohemia in the six- teenth century. There are various opinions as to the period of foundation, some dating it back to the time of Pope Cletus, but it is certain that the order was flourishing in Poland and Lithuania in the second half of the thirteenth century, the most important monas- tery being that of St. ]\Iark at Cracow, where the re- ligious lived under the Rule of St. Augustine. The prior bore the title prior eeclesice S. Mnri<r de Metro. The habit wa.s white, with a white scapular, on which was embroidered a red cross and heart. In a six- teenth-century document the members of this order are referred to as canons regular and mendicants.
(3) Penitents of Our Lady of Refuge, also called Nuns or Hospitallers of Our Lady of Nancy, founded at Nancy in 1631 by Ven. Mari(>-Elizabeth de la Croix de Jesus (b. 30 Nov., 1.592; d. 14 Jan., 1649), daughter of Jean-Leonard de Ranfain of Remiremont. .-^fter a childhood of .singular innocence .and mortification she was coerced into a marriage with an aged nobleman named Dubois, whose inhuman treatment of her ceased only with his conversion shortly before his death. Left a widow at the early age of "twenty-four, she opened ,1 refuge for fallen women, to whose wants she ministered, assisted by her three young daughters. Her success anfl the insistence of ecclesiastics en- couraged her to ensure the perpetuation of the work
by the institution of a religious community (1631),
in which she was joined by her daughters and nine
companions, including two lay sisters. The new con-
gregation was formally approved by the Holy See in
1634 under the title of Our Lady of Refuge and the
patronage of St. Ignatius Loyola, and under constitu-
tions drawn largely from those of the Society of Jesus
and in accordance with the Rule of St. Augustine.
The institute soon spread throughout France, and by
the latter part of the nineteenth century had houses
in the Dioceses of Besangon, Blois, Coutances, Mar-
seilles, Rennes, La Rochelle, St-Brieux, Tours, Tou-
louse, and Valence. The members are divided into
three classes (1) those of unblemished Uves, bound by a
fourth vow to the service of penitents; (2) penitents
whose altered life justifies their admission to the com-
munity on terms of equality with the first mentioned,
save that they are not eligible to office, and that in case
the convent is not self-supporting they are required
to furnish a small dowry; (3) penitents properly so-
called, who observe the same rule as the rest but are
without vows or distinctive garb. The habit is reddish
brown, with a white scapular. Innocent XI author-
ized the institution of a special feast of Our Lady
of Refuge for 30 January, and the establishment of a
confraternity under her patronage.
(4) Sisters of the Conservatorio di S. Croce delta Penitenza or del biion Pastore, also known as Scaleite, founded at Rome, in 1615, by the Carmelite Domenico di Gesu e Maria, who, with the assistance of Baltaa- sare Paluzzi, gathered into a small house (conservatorio) a number of women whose virtue was imperilled, and drew up for them a rule of life. Those desiring to be- come religious were placed under t he Rule of St . Augus- tine, and, owing to the active interest of IMaximilian, Elector of Bavaria, and Cardinal Antonio Barberini, a larger monastery and a church were built for them. E.xternal aff'airs were administered by a prelate known as the vice-protector and liis council, and the internal economy by a prioress, but in 1838 the institution was placed under the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Later a house of training for abandoned girls and a house of correction for erring women were established in connexion with this institution, the latter being en- larged by Pius IX in 1851. The congregation has since been merged into that of the Good Shepherd.
(5) Ordo relicfiosus de poenitenlia, the members of which were called Scalzetti or Nazareni, founded in 1752 at Salamanca, by Juan Varella y Losada (b. 1724; d. at Ferrara, 24 May, 1769), who had resigned a mili- tary career for a life of voluntary humiliation in a house of the Observants at Salamanca. Being urged to found a religious order, he assembled eight com- panions in community (8 March, 1752) under a rule which he had drawn up the previous year, and for which he obtained the authorization of Benedict XIV. The four foundations which he made in Hun- gary enjoyed but a brief existence, owing to the regu- lations of Joseph II, and those in Spain and Portugal did not survive the revolutions in those countries, so that the congregation was eventually confined to Italy. The mother-house is in Rome, where the institute pos- sesses two convents, S. Maria delle Grazie, and S.Maria degli Angeli in Macello Martyrum. The constitutions were confirmed by Pius VI, who granted the congre- gation the privileges enjoyed by the Franciscans, to which there is a close resemblance in organization and habit. Like the Franciscans, the members take a vow to defend the doctrine of the Imm.aculate Con- ception, and, like all mendicant orders, they derive their means of subsistence entirely from contributions, and are forbidden the possession of landed property.
H^LTOT, Ordres rrKginir (Paris. 1859); Heimbccher, Orden und Kongregatinnrr ' I>Tr|rr',r,rn, 1907); (1) de Sabine. £.'tns(i(u( rf/orme des erfmM' i> i/ion de s. Jean-Baplisle (Paris,
1655): (3) La Fr : --i; Dfctarntion de r Institut de la
congregation dc .\. I' ;.;,..,. i Rouen. 1664) ; (4) Piazza, Euse-
ologio Romano. 4. io
Florence Rudge McGahan.
