FORTY
151
FORTY
in the follcnviiig March was flppiitcd, with Bishops
Moore and ( 'lihnour, to present the decrees of the coun-
cil to the Holy Father. In 1S86 he erected an asylum
for orphan girls at Fort Wayne. In 1888 and in 1891
he again went to Rome, the last time in the interest of
the North American College. Soon after his return
he was attacked by a lingering illness, to which he
succumbed 22 January, 1S93.
The Right Rev. Joseph Rademacher, Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee, was transferred to Fort Wayne, i:{ July, 1893. He was born 3 December, 1840, in Westphalia, Michigan, and ordained priest 2 August, 1863, by Bishop Luers, to whose diocese he had been affiliated. In April, 1883, he was appointed Bishop of Nashville, Tennessee, and was consecrated 24 June. At Fort Wayne Bishop Rademacher applied himself assitluously to increase the number of churches, schools, ana missions. In 1896 he remodelled the cathedral at an expense of $75,000. In 1898 his health gave way. Symptoms of mental collapse ap- peared and he had to relinquish the government of the diocese. He expired peacefully 12 January, 1900. During his illness, and until the appointment of a suc- cessor. Very Rev. J. H. Guendling, vicar-general and pastor of the cathedral, was administrator of the diocese.
The Rev. H. J. Alerding, pastor of St. Joseph's Church, Indianapolis, was appointed successor of Bishop Rademacher 30 Aug., 1900. He was born 13 April, 1845, in Germany. During his infancy his parents emigrated to the United States and settled in Newport, Kentucky. He was ordained priest by Bishop Maurice de St. Palais of Vincennes 22 .Septem- ber, 1868, and appointed assistant at .St. Joseph's church, Terre Haute, where he remained till 1871, attending, besides, a number of missions. From Oc- tober, 1871, to August, 1874, he was pastor of Cam- bridge <!'ity, whence he was transferred to Indianapolis and entrusted with the organization of St. Joseph's parish, where he built the church, the school, and a parochial residence. In 1885 he published "A His- tory of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincen- nes", a work of deep historical research and accuracy. Bishop Alerding was consecrated in the cathedral of Fort Wayne 30 November, 1900. .Since then he has founded new parishes, aided struggling ones, reorgan- ized the parochial school system, provided for the orphans, and promoted all good works. He held a diocesan synod in the cathedral 11 November, 1903. The statutes enacted were promulgated 19 March, 1904. Among other salutary regulations the establish- ment of six deaneries was decreed — Fort Wayne, South Bend, Hammond, Logansport, Lafayette, and Muncie. In 1907, for the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the diocese, Bishop Alerding published "A History of the Diocese of Fort WajTie", an elaborate historical work, covering the period from 1669 to 1907.
Diocesan statistics for 1908 give priests, secular, 128; religious, 71; churches with resident priest, 110; missions with churches, 43; stations, 6; chapels, 49; parochial schools, 82, with 14,252 pupils; orphan asylums, 2; orphans, 2.39; hospitals, 13; old people's homes, 2; Catholic population, 93,844. Educational Institutions: the University of Notre Dame, in charge of the Fathers of the Holy Cross; .St. Joseph's College (Collegeville),conductedbythe Fathersof the Precious Blood. For girls: academies, 11. The number of pupils in colleges and academies is 1262. Religious Communities. — Men : Fathers and Brothers of the Holy Cross; Franciscans; Fathers and Brothers of the Precious Blood. Women: Sisters of the Holy Cross ; Poor Handmaids of Christ; Franciscan Sisters (vari- ious branches); Dominican Sisters; Sisters of the Precious Blood; of Notre Dame; of St. Joseph; of Providence; of the Holy Family; of St. Agnes. The following commvmities have novitiates in the diocese: The Fathers and Brothers of the Holy Cross, at Notre
Dame; the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration,
at Lafayette; the Sisters of the Holy Cross, at Notre
Dame ; the Poor Handmaids of Christ, at Fort Wayne ;
the Sisters of St. Joseph, at Tipton.
Alerding, The Diocese of Fort Waune (Fort Wayne, 1907); The Catholic Directory (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
BONAVENTURE HaMMER.
Forty Hoius' Devotion, also called Quarant ' Ore or written in one word Quarnniore, is a devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. It is commonly re- garded as of the essence of the devotion that it should be kept up in a succession of churches, terminating in one at about the same hour at which it commences in the next, but this question will be discussed in the his- torical summary. A solemn high Mass, " Mass of Exposition", is sung at the beginning, and another, the "Mass of Deposition", at the end of the period of forty hours; and both these Masses are accompanied by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and by the chanting of the litanies of the saints. The exact period of forty hours' exposition is not in practice very strictly adhered to; for the Mass of Deposition is generally sung, at about the same hour of the morning, two days after the Mass of Exposition. On the inter- vening day a solemn Mass pro pace is offered — if pos- sible, at a ditTerent altar from the high altar upon which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. It is as- sumed that the exposition and prayer should be kept up by night as well as by day, but permission is given to dispense with this requirement when an adequate number of watchers cannot be obtained. In such a case the interruption of the devotion by night does not forfeit the indulgences conceded by the Holy See to those who take part in it.
History of the Devotion. — Although the precise origin of the Forty Hours' Devotion is wrapped in a good deal of obscurity, there are certain facts which must be accepted without dispute. The Milanese chronicler Burigozzo (see "Archiv. Stor. Ital.", Ill, 537), who was a contemporary, clearly describes the custom of exposing the Blessed Sacrament in one church after another as a novelty which began at Milan, in May, 1537. He does not ascribe the intro- duction of this practice to any one person; but he gives details as to the church with which it started, etc., and his notice seems to have been actually written in that year. Less than two years afterwards, we have the reply of Pope Paul III to a petition soliciting indulgences for the practice. This is so important, as embodying an official statement of the original pur- pose of the devotion, that we copy it here: " Since [says the pontiff] . . . Our beloved son the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Milan at the prayer of the in- habitants of the said city, in order to appease the anger of God provoked by the offences of Christians, and in order to bring to nought the efforts and machi- nations of the Turks who are pressing forward to the destruction of Christendom, amongst other pious prac- tices, has established a round of prayers and supplica- tions to be offered both by day and night by all the faithful of Christ, before our Lord's Most Sacred Body, in all the churches of the said city, in such a manner that these prayers and supplications are made by the faithful themselves relieving each other in relays for forty hours continuously in each church in succession, according to the order determined by the Vicar. . . We, approving in our Lord so pious an institution, and confirming the same by Our authority, grant and remit", etc. (Sala, "Documenti", IV, 9; cf. Ratti in " La Scuola Cattolica" [1895], 204).
The parchment is endorsed on the back in a con- temporary hand, "The first concession of Indulgence" etc., and we may feel sure that this is the earliest pronouncement of the Holy .See upon the subject. But the practice without doubt spread rapidly, though