ORDINANCE OF MONSEIGNEUR THE ARCHBISHOP OF TOURS

For the Establishment of the Confraternity of the Holy Face.

Guillaume-Rene MEIGNAN, through the mercy of God and the favour of the Holy Apostolic See, archbishop of Tours;

To all the priests and faithful whom the present ordinance concerns, greeting and benediction in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Considering that a picture of the Holy Face of our Lord, being an authentic fac-simile of the veil of Veronica preserved at Rome, has been for the last thirty-three years exposed in a public chapel in our archiepiscopal city;

That it is the object of an ever-increasing devotion which attracts pilgrims from all parts of the world;

That spiritual and temporal graces of every kind are being daily obtained in presence of it, by means of prayers, many of which graces are deemed to be miraculous;

Desirous of favouring this devotion, which we look upon as being a very suitable means for developing true and solid piety, by causing the person and the mysteries of the life and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ to be better known and loved more ardently, and at the same time considering it to be a salutary and very efficacious remedy for the cure and reparation of the evils by which our contemporary society is afflicted, such as indifference in matters of religion, the profanation of holy things, the sacrilegious impiety of free thinkers and freemasons;

We have resolved and decided upon the following measures:

  1. That there shall be established at Tours a Confraternity of the Holy Face in the Oratory called by that name;
  2. That the statutes of the Confraternity shall be approved according to the form in which they are registered in the accompanying document (1);

III. That the said Confraternity, or association, being thus canonically established, shall enjoy all the indulgences and other spiritual graces with which it may be favoured, whether in virtue of our ordinary powers, or whether in virtue of the plenary authority of the Holy Apostolic See.

In consequence, we will and command that the present ordinance, serving as a foundation for the above-named association, shall be preserved in the archives of the Oratory of the Holy Face and transcribed, together with the other title deeds, in the register of the Confraternity.

Given at Tours, in our archepiscopal palace, under our signature, our seal and the signature of our Secretary General.

The twenty-fifth day of the month of October, being the eve of the patronage of the most holy Virgin, in the year of grace 1884.

† Guillaume-Rene, Arch, of Tours.

Place of the seal.

By command:

  1. Sellier,

Canon., Secretary general.

1 See later on, the text of the Statutes, p. 52.