OBLATES. oblfits (ML. °bialys. oblate. from Lat. oblatas. offered, p.p. assigned to offerre, offer The name of a I-lass of religious munities in the Ibunan Catholic Chnrch, \Odell diner from the religions strictly so called in not hieing bound by regular vows, instead of which they make an offering (oblation) of them selves to the superior or bishop. with a promise of constancy. The principal associations of this class arc: 11l The Oblates of Saint Ambrose, or of Saint t'haries, whose foundation in 1578 was one I >f the many works undertaken in his diocese by Saint Carlo Rorromeo (q.v.). bishop of _Milan. The members were secular priests who lived in community. and were merely bound by a promise to the .\rclibishop to devote themselves to any service which lie xhoWhJ eon. shier desirable for the interest of religion. Saint Carlo made use of t hem eltielly in the wild and inaecessilde .Alpitze districts of leis diocese. 111 the suppression tI small under I 'rban V1II. and Innocent N.. the institution came extinct, but. was revived by Arelibishop of Milan in 1848. In 1S5i; a community on the same model was established in England by the future Cardinal and his sue as Archbishop. Cardinal Vaughan. for work in London. The English oblates, whose statutes were Ctinlirnivd by the rope in ls57 au.! 1477. have now several houses. (2I The ( Of :\lary Immaculate was founded in de Mazenod. Bishop of .Marseilles I 1837-(11 ). to repair the losses to relj.rjoil by the French Revolution. Their rule was eonfirined I,y Leo XII. in 1821;. They
were introduced into Canada in 1811 and the I 'ilited `states in IRIS. The which has about 70 houses in all parts of the world, now numbers a thousand na•mbers. the majority of them priests, The mother house is in Paris. in which city the "real basiliea of the Sacred Ileart oat \bolt martre is principally their work. The general is elected for life; a general chapter is held every six years, They ronduet a large 1111111111.1' of edneational and charitable institutions, among them the Catholie lttowa. For the life of the founder, eonsult RicArd ion, air nod (Paris, 1892). (3) The I of Saint l'rances of Rome, popularly known as Donne di Tor di Speechi. This association grew out of the charitable work of the pious woman whose mune it bears, and took up its community life in 1433 in the house in Rome which it still occupies. To this house, still the only one possessed hy the institute. Saint Frances went on her death, and here she died as superior in 1440. The oblates are mostly ladies of noble birth, and have done much good in eduentional and charitable works. They, with the Jesuits. were expressly excepted from the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent affecting the regular Orders; and their statutes gave Saint Francis de Sales the idea of his order of the Visitation. For the original consult Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Life of 'Saint Prone, a of Hume (London. 1855).