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Sacramentale Sacred Heart THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

women after childbirth. Special blessings are imparted to certain objects destined for the service of God--churches, cemeteries, vestments, palls, corporals, pyxea, monstrances, crosses, images of the saints, candles, and rosaries. Particular forms of benediction are also provided for a number of things connected with the daily occupations and needs of men, as for houses, ships, locomotives, battle-flags, fields, and bread, wine, salt, and other edibles.

In the case of objects consecrated for the direct service of God, the act has both a liturgical and a legal aspect. Through consecration

5. Legal they are not merely prepared in a Aspects. specially solemn way for their sacred purpose but made externally inviolable (res sacrce). The administration of the eaeramen tals connected with the sacraments is reserved to the person who administers the sacrament. In gen eral, however, the spiritual power to bless and con secrate is conferred on priests at their ordination, when their hands are anointed with the prayer " that whatsoever they bless may be blessed, and whatsoever they consecrate may be consecrated and hallowed." If a priest performs consecrations reserved to bishops, they are merely irregular or illicit, but not invalid as they would be if performed by a layman. To the pope, as head of the universal Church, is reserved (apart from the imperial coro nation, treated above) the blessing of the wax figures known as Agni Dei (see AGNus DEl), of the Pallium (q.v.) for metropolitans, of the golden roses (see GOLDEN ROSE) sent to princes or churches, and of swords for kings and princes. This reserva tion, however, is merely a mark of honor attached to the papal primacy. AS the possessor of jurisdic tion over the whole Church, the pope can perform consecration or benediction for any part or any member of it, or delegate his power to any qualified person, while the bishop's authority in such cases is limited to his own diocese. It is of practical signifi cance in the development of the modern Roman Catholic system that there has been a marked tend ency to restrict the power of delegating authority to bless or consecrate churches, altars, sacred ves sels, and the like, to the pope. This power is nowa days frequently conferred on the bishops by their quinquennial faculties (see FAcuLTIEs). In recent times the Congregation of Rites has assumed the power of sub-delegating certain privileges directly, such as that of blessing bells to a priest of the dio cese, or sacred vessels to a mitered prelate.

It is an established principle of church law and practise that whatever is supposed to be blessed or consecrated must be; but numerous objects used in Roman Catholic worship are not 6. Occasions blessed, e.g., hangings, candle-sticks,

for Con- and censors. Misuse or profanation secration. of blessed objects is subject to ecclesi astical penalties. A validly adminis tered sacramental is not allowed to be repeated while the original conditions of its administration remain; the common blessings, however, may be repeated for the same person or thing as often as there is reasonable ground. If the object has un dergone an essential change, especially if it can no

longer either in fact or in law aubserve its liturgical purpose, the sacramental operation of the consecration or blessing is supposed to cease; the object needs no formal desecration, but a declaration of the circumstances is made to the proper authority. A new consecration is required, as in the case of a church, where the object is destroyed so far as to affect its essential character and then restored. The shedding of blood or the commission of gross immorality in a church is held to pollute but not to desecrate it; reconciliation, not a new consecration, is required, which is accomplished with holy water by the bishop. The pollution of a church affects the churchyard as well, in which Christian burial is not supposed to take place until the church has been reconciled. The pollution of the churchyard, on the other hand, has no effect on the church.

All that has been said above applies obviously to the medieval or modern Roman Catholic Church. The Evangelical Churches know no sacramentals in the sense here discussed. They em-

7. Protes- ploy neither consecration nor benedic tant tion even for the immediate instru Teachings. manta of divine worship, such as would impart to them any property of special sanctity, although such objects, according to Prot estant church law, deserve special respect and are to be protected from profane uses. A solemn dedi cation is indeed usual for churches and churchyards, with a prayer of benediction. In regard to the set ting apart of particular objects (pulpits, sacred ves sels, organs, fonts), it has been held sufficient for the officiating clergyman, on the first occasion of their use, to address a few appropriate words to the con gregation, and then to ask God's blessing upon the employment of the objects. In regard to benedic tions for objects of every-day use, the older Prot estant ordinances not infrequently declare expressly against them, on account of the danger of super stition. (R. W. DovE fi.) BIeLrOORAPHr: T. Natter, Faaciculi zizanionsm, ed. W. Shirley, in Rolls Series, no. 5, London, 1858; J. Aelfert, Rechte in Ansehunp der heiligen Handlunpen, Prague, 1843; F. Probst, Kirchliche Benedictionen and shre Vermaltunp, Tiibingen, 1857; A L. Richter, Lehrbuch des . .

Kirchenrechta, ed. R. W. Dove, §§ 260, 308, Leipaic, 1871; P. I. Wapelhorst, Compendium sacree liturpia;, Tuxta ritum Romanum, New York, 1887; P. Hiasehius, System des . Kirchenrechta, iv. 141-177, Berlin, 1888; A. A. Lambing, Sacramentala of the Catholic Church, New York 1892; W. Winners. Lehrbuch der Religion, iv. §§ 97-98, Miinater, 1895; F. Loofs, Symbolik, i. 348 sqq., Tiibingen, 1902; KL, z. 1489 sqq.

SACRED HEART OF JESUS, DEVOTION TO.

I. History of the Devotion: The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was practically, if not abaolutely, originated by the Jesuits. Under the influence of her director, the Jesuit La Colombi6re, Marguerite Marie Alacoque (d. 1690), a nun in the Salesian convent at Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, practised a fervent mystical devotion to Christ which resulted in ecstasy. According to her account, on June 16, 1675, when praying before the sacrament, she saw Jesus " showing to her his heart on a flaming throne, surrounded by thorns and surmounted by a cross; and he told her it was his will that a special devotion should be offered to his Sacred Heart in reparation for irreverences com-