ARCHBISHOPS AND THEIR PROVINCES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 70, 29 August 1874, Page 9

ARCHBISHOPS AND THEIR PROVINCES.

The following facts will be found interesting at the present time :—: —

For the purposes of government and the administration of its affairs, the Catholic Church, in any nation, is divided into provinces and dioceses, a certain number of dioceses over which an Archbishop presides forming a province. The title of " Archbishop " is one of great antiquity, dating from the fourth century. It was officially given by the Council of Ephesus in the year 430, and Chalcedou in the same century. They are also called Metropolitans, anciently filling the See of the principal and capital towns of provinces. The Bishops whose dioceses are within the Archbishop's province are called his " suffragans," deriving that name from the right of votiDg in the ecclesiastical councils of their province. The rights of an Archbishop are to consecrate suffragans, to convene principal councils, to settle disputes amongst Bishops, and to superintend the faith and discipline of his province, subject always to control and authority of the Holy See. The insignia of an Archbishop is a'pallium, which denotes the plenitude of his jurisdiction. Thia mark of dignity is made of the finest wool, shorn from the back of lambs blessed for that purpose, and ornamented with six crosses. It is a sort of circular scarf worn clobo to the neck, with two falls, and falls over the chasuble, to which it is fastened with three gold pins. The gallium is an appropriate symbol of the great flock committed by our Lord to the Pastors of His Church ; worn on the shoulders, it is significant of the functions of that Good Shepherd, who, having lost one of His sheep goes forth into the wilderness to search for it ; and who having found it lays it tenderly upon His shoulders, and brings it back with gladness to the fold from whence it strayed. It symbolically represents humility, zeal, a chain of honor and pastoral vigilance. It is also called an ans phorion, super humerale, and hiera stole. It is thus prepared : yearly on the 21st of January, two young lambs are blessed at Mass on the altar of the Church of St. Agm s at Rome, and are then presented to the Sovereign Pontiff, who lays hands upon them. Carefully tended they are, and when the fit season arrives, shorn and their wool is spun by the Sisters ef a religious community, which is thus made into the pallium. On the eve of the feast of the Blessed Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, a certain number of these are reverently deposited in the confession, from whence, after the first Vespers of the Feast, they are brought with much pomp to the Sovereign Pontiff, who blesses them with duly prescribed rites ; then they are replaced in a Bilver casket covered witk gold, and laid near the body of the Prince of the Apostlos. It is seat to all Primates, Metropolitans, and Archbishops. As

an Archbishopric can only be created by the Pope, when it is bo created, the pnll is either sent to the Archbishop, or he has to go to Rome for it. When Pope Gregory the Great created Canterbury an. Archdiocese, he sent St. Augustine the pall, which mark of submission to Rome and of jurisdiction derived frurn St. Peter, is still to be seen on the coat of arms of the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, and testifies to the ancient history of the See. — ' Catholic Standard.'