Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/739

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

NAMAQUALAND


673


NAMES


able" to a place called D'yj (Nairn) in the territory of Issachar, in Galilee. Eusebius and St. Jerome (Ono- masticon) place Nairn south of Mount Thabor, and not far from Endor. Now, opposite to Thabor, and a mile and a half north of Enddr (doubtless the Biblical Endor), lies a village called Nain ("pleasantness"). It is situated on the north-western ridge of Jebel Dahy , the Little Herraon, and commands a magnificent view. There are traces of ruins beyond its boundary to the north, but no sign of fortifications. "The gate of the city" (Luke, vii, 12) might have belonged to a wall of enclosure, built to protect the place against marauding tribes, as was often the case in the East. A steep path leads up to the village, passing by the site of an ancient church which had been converted into a mosque, "Moukam Lidna Aisa" (Oratory of the Lord Jesus). The mosque, having fallen into ruins, was replaced by another in the vicinity. In 1880 the Franciscans bought the ruins of the first building, and erected thereon a chapel. Not far away may be seen Jewish rock-tombs. Thus the details of Nairn's graphic story find an easy localization.

RoBiNSi^N, Biblical Researches in Palestine, III (Boston, 1841), 226; Survey of IF. Palestine, Memoirs, II (London, 1882). 86; Gderin, La Galilee. I (Paria, 1880), 113-115.

Barnabas Meistermann.

Natuaqualand, Prefecture Apostolic op Great. See Chance River, ViCARi.'iTE Apostolic of the.

Name, Baptismal. See Baptism, sub-title XV: Names, Christian.

Name of Jesus, Religious Communities of the. — (1) Knights of the Name of Jesus, also known as Seraphim, founded in 1334 by the Queens of Norway and Sweden to defend their respective countries from the onslaught of heathen hordes. They did not sur- vive the Reformation. (2) Sisters of the Name of Jesus comprise six congregations founded in France during the nineteenth century in the Dioceses of Besan^on, with mother-house at Grande-Fontaine, Paris; of Valence (181.5 or 1825), mother-house at Lorial; of Rodez, mother-house at Ste-Radegonde ; of Toulouse (1827); and of Marseilles (1852). These sisters devote themselves chiefly to the work of teach- ing and caring for the sick. (3) Confraternity of the Name of Jesus, formed by the amalgamation of the Portuguese Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, founded by Andreas Diaz, O.P., in 1432, with the Spanish Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God, established by Diego Victoria, O.P., in the .six- teenth century. Approbation was granted by Popes Paul V (1606) and Innocent XI (1678), and the con- fraternity was enriched with indulgences and placed under the Dominican general.

BEisSELin Kirchenlfx.. 8. v. Namen Jesu ; Keller. Les conffrS' gations religieuses en France (Paris. 1880); Konversationslex.

Florence Rudge McGahan.

Name of Mary, Fea.st of the Holy. — We vene- rate the name of Mary because it belongs to her who is the Mother of God, the holiest of creatures, the Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of mercy. The object of the feast is the Holy Virgin bearing the name of Mirjam (Mary) ; the feast commemorates all the privileges given to Mary by God and all the graces we. have received through her intercession and media- tion. It was in.stitutcd in 1513 at Cuenca in Spain, and assigned with proper Office to 15 Sept., the octave day of Mary's Nativity. After the reform of the Breviary by St. Pius V, by a Decree of Si.xtus V (16 Jan., 1587), it was transferred to 17 Sept. In 1622 it was extended to the Archdiocese of Toledo by Gregory XV. After 1625 the Congregation of Rites hesitated for a while before authorizing its further spread (cf. the seven decrees, "Analecta Juris Pontificii", LVIII, deer. 716 sqq.). But it was celebrated by the Spanish Trinitarians in 1640 (Ordo Hispan., 1640). On 15 Nov., 1658, the feast was granted to the Oratory of X.— 43


Cardinal Berulle under the title: Solemnitas gloriosm Virginis, dupl. cum oct., 17 Sept. Bearing the original title, SS. Nominis B.M.V., it was granted to all Spain and the Kingdom of Naples on 26 Jan., 1671. After the siege of Vienna and the glorious victory of So- bieski over the Turks (12 Sept., 1683), the feast was extended to the universal Church by Innocent XI, and assigned to the Sunday Jafter the Nativity of Mary by a Decree of 25 Nov., 1683 (duplex majus); it was granted to Austria as d. 2. classis on 1 Aug., 1684. According to a Decree of 8 July, 1908, whenever this feast cannot be celebrated on its proper Sunday on account of the occurrence of some feast of a higher rank, it must be kept on 12 Sept., the day on which the victory of Sobieski is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. The Calendar of the Nuns of Perpetual Adoration, O.S.B., in France, of the year 1827, has the feast with a special Office on 25 Sept. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary is the patronal feast of the Clerics Regular of the Pious Schools (Piarists) and of the Society of Mary (Marianists), in both cases with a proper office. In 1666 the Discalced Carmelites re- ceived the faculty to recite the Office of the Name of Mary four times a year (duplex). At Rome one of the twin churches at the Forum Trajani is dedicated to the Name of Mary. In the Ambrosian Calendar of Milan the feast of the Holy Name of Mary is assigned to 11 September.

Albers, Bliithenhranze (Paderborn, 1894), IV, sqq. ; Holweck, Fasli Mariani 'Freiburg, 1892).

Frederick G. Holweck.

Names, Christian. — "Christian names", says the Elizabethan antiquary, Camden, "were imposed for the distinction of persons, surnames for the difference of families." It would seem from this that, even in the sixteenth century, the etymological and historical significance of the phrase "Christian name" was growing dim, and it is commonly quite forgotten in our own time. But, strictly speaking, the "Christian name" is not merely the forename distinctive of the individual member of a family, but the name given to him at his "christening", i.e., his baptism. It should be remembered that in pre-Reformation England the laity were taught to administer baptism in case of necessity with the word.= : " I christen thee in the name of the Father" etc. To "christen" is therefore to "baptize", and "Christian name" means baptismal name.

Origins. — Some vague idea that nomina sunt omina (names are omens) seems to be a sort of primitive human instinct. Thus throughout Old-Testament times the significance of names passed as an accepted principle. They were usually given in reference either to some trait in the child, actual or prophetic, or to some feeling or hope in the parent at the time of its birth. It was only a very slight development of this idea to suppose that a change of condition appro- priately demanded a change of name. Thus the con- version of Abram into Abraham (the "father of many nations". Gen., xvii, 5) was imposed upon the occa^ fiion of the covenant of circumcision and ratified a claim to God's special benediction. In view, then, of this recognized congruity and of the Hebrew practice of giving a name to the male child at the time of its circumcision on the eighth day after birth (Luke, i, 59), it has been maintained that the ru.stom of confer- ring a name upon the newly bapl iscd was of Apostolic origin. An instance in point is dcilarcd to be found in the case of the Apostle of the Gentiles who before his conversion was called Saul and afterwards Paul. But modern scholarship, and with reason, has alto- gether rejected this contention. The baptism of St. Paul is recorded in Acts, ix, 18, but th(^ name Paul does not occur before Acts, xiu, 9 while Saul is found several times in the interval. We have no more rea- son to connect the name Paul with the Apostle's bap-