France. It was solemnly approved by Gregory XVI, 5 Aug., 1837.
The Faithful Companions of Jesus are devoted to the education of all classes, adapting themselves to the special educational needs of each country. In 1903 the society possessed forty-one convents in France, Italy, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Aus- tralia, Canada, and the United States. The religious persecution in France, with the consequent closing of the French houses, has been the cause of new founda- tions in Belgium (at Brussels, Graty, and Namur), also in the Isle of Guernsey, and at Fribourg, Switzerland. The society is governed by a superior general who, up to the time of the religious persecution in France, resided at the mother-house in Paris; the home of the superior general is at present in Namur, Belgium. The society numbers about 1200 religious, who in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Australia conduct about 60 grammar and high schools, technical schools, science and art schools. The new training college for teachers at Sedgley, near Manchester, England, has met with great success. In the United States the sisters have charge of about one thousand children attending St. Joseph's parochial school at Fitchburg, Mass. They also have an academy where high school branches are taught. A small foundation has re- cently been made at Gilbertville, Mass. In the United States there are 46 sisters, 4 novices, 2 schools, and 1 high school. The society now possesses thirty-two convents. The novitiates are at Xamur, Bel- gium, Upton Hall, near Liverpool, England, Limerick, Ireland, and Fitchburg, Mass.
Sister Mary Philomena.
Faico, Jn.N Conchillos, painter, b. at Valencia of an ancient noble family in 1641 ; d. 14 May, 1711. He was a pupil of Esteban March, the eminent but eccen- tric Valencian painter, and was one of the first Spanish artists to start and maintain a school of design, gather- ing about him various youthful artists and insisting upon their working in charcoal in order to obtain free- dom of draughtsmanship. He was a brilliant sketcher and in his journeys through his native country made some clever and humorous pencil drawings of scenes which took place on the road. Falco is almost the only Spanish artist of whom it can be said that he had a keen sense of humour, but he is further described by his contemporaries as "the most amiable of men, humble, modest, a model of virtue, and altogether of the stuff whereof angels are made ". Two of his most important works were those executed for the church of San Salvador in Valencia; others are the " Immacu- late Conception", painted for the Franciscans in the same city, the frescoes in the church of San Juan, and the two altar-pieces of the Cistercian monastery of Valdigna. The close of his life was full of sadness. He was suddenly struck with palsy and became a con- firmed cripple. Soon after that he lost his sight and died completely blind. De Castro y Vf.lasco. El Museo Pictorico y Escala (Madrid. 1724)- QuiLLlET, PcintTes Espagnols (Paris, 1816); Bermcdez, Diccionnrio Hislorico de iM Bellas Artes en Espana (Seville. 1800); STlKU.NG..4nna(8 of Ihe Artisia o/ Spain (London, 1891). George Charles Williamson. Falconieri, Juli.4.na, S.unt. See Juliana Fal- coNiEUi, Saint. Faldistorium (Faldestolium). See Faldstool. Faldstool (Lat. faldistorium; also facistorium, jau- destolus, faudestola), a movable folding chair used in pontifical functions by the bishop outside of his cathedral, or within it if he is not at his throne or cathedra. Other prelates enjoying the privilege of full pontificals also use it. The rubrics prescribe it as a seat in the conferring of baptism and Holy orders, in the consecralion of oils on Maundy Thur.s<iay, at the ceremonies of Good I'riday, etc. It is prescribed as a genuflexorium at the door of the church at the solemn reception of a bishop, at the altar of the Blessed Sacra- ment, and before the high altar. Red, green, and vio- let cloths are ordered as a covering to correspond to the season or the rank of the prelate. It may have once been something like a campstool and it accom- panied the bishop in ins journeys. Materials, even the most costly, were employed in its construction; one wrought of gold antl jewelled was presented to Pope Clement IV by Charles, King of Naples. Some were made of sil- ver, of gilt metal, of ebony, or of wood. They were sometimes elabor- ately carved, ending in clawlike feet, the four corners at the top repre- senting the neck and Faldstool. head of animals. Cloths of silk of a rich texture with gold and silver served to cover them. A faldstool is prescribed by the old English Ritual in the consecration of a bishop. Of Hugh Pudsev, Bishop of Durham (d. 1195), we are told that on taking the cross for the holy war he had made among other things to carry along with him a magnificent silver chair. Rock, Church of our Fathers (London. 1904), II. 209-213; ScHMlD in Kirchenlex.. s. v. Faldistorium: Martene, De arUi- guis Ecclesice ritibuSt 1,613. Francis Mershman. Falerii, Diocese of. See Civit. Castellana, Orte, and Gallese. Falkenberg, John of. See John of Falken- berg. Falkner, Thomas, b. 6 Oct., 1707 ;d. 30 Jan., 1784. He was the son of Thomas Falkner, a Manchester apothecary, and obtained his education at the Man- chester grammar school. Later on, having studied medicine under the well-known Dr. Richard Mead, he became a surgeon and practised at his native place. His own health being delicate, he was advised to take a sea-voyage, and being acquainted with a ship chap- lain on board the "Assiento", a vessel trading with Guinea and carrying slaves thence to Buenos Aires, he accepted an invitation to accompany the vessel as surgeon. This was in or about 1731. On reaching Buenos Aires he was so ill that the captain was com- pelled to leave him there in thecareof FatherMahoney, tlie superior of the Jesuit College. Here he not only recovered his health, but was received into the Church, and on 15 Mav, 1732, entered the Society of Jesus, be- coming a member of the Paraguay province. Having spent some time at the Jesuit College of Cordoba de Tucuman, he went as a missionary to the Puelches, near Rio Legundo. His knowledge of medicine and mechanics procured for him considerable influence among the Indians, and in 1740 or soon after he was sent to assist Father Strobel in his successful mission to the Patagonian Indians at Cape San Antonio. For more than thirty years he laboured among the Pata- gonians until 1768 when the Jesuits were expelled from South .merica. He then returned to England where, in 1771 or 1772, he joined the English province of the Society. He was appointed chaplain to Mr. Berkeley of Spetchley, and here, in aildition to his priestly labours, he wrote an account of his Patagonian experi- ences, which was published at Hereford in 1774 under tlie title "A Description of Patagonia and the adjoin- ing parts of South America, with a grammar and a short vocabulary, and some particulars relating to Falkland's Islands". The book as published was not
