and how the Church Triumphant rejoiced with her. " To crown, in a certain sense," says our Holy Father, "this general exultation, we desire to fulfil, as perfectly as possible, the duty of our apostolic charity by extending the fulness of infinite spiritual treasures to those beloved sons of the Church who, having died the death of the just, have quitted this life of combat with the sign of faith, and have become offshoots of the mystic vine, although they are not permitted to enter into eternal peace until they shall have paid the last farthing of the debt which they owe to the avenging justice of God.
" We are moved thereto both by the pious desires of Catholics, to whom we know our resolution will be particularly dear, and by the agonising intensity of the pains suffered by the departed souls; but we are especially inspired by the custom of the Church, who, in the midst of the most joyful solemnities of the year, forgets not the holy and salutary commemoration of the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.
" For this reason, since it is certain from Catholic doctrine that the souls detained in Purgatory are relieved by the suffrages of the faithful, and especially by the august Sacrifice of the Altar, we think we can give no more useful nor more desirable pledge of our love than by everywhere multiplying, for the mitigation of their pains, the pure oblation of the Holy Sacrifice of our Divine Mediator.
"We therefore appoint, with all necessary dispensations and derogations, the last Sunday of the month of September next as a day of ample expiation; on which day there shall be celebrated by us, and likewise by our brethren the Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and by all other Prelates exercising jurisdiction in a diocese, each in his own patriarchal church, metropolitan or cathedral, a special Mass for the dead, with all possible solemnity, and according to the rite indicated by the missal for the Com-
