The Renewal of the Order redone 2018

97 Documents The Institute grew in Poland where it began, as well as in Portugal. It was beneficial to the Faith everywhere, but during the persecution rampant in the nineteenth century, it gradually broke down so much that currently one monk remains who was its Superior General. Some diocesan clergy watched with pain as the Institute which once used to enjoy recognition was now heading for complete extinc- tion, and with the consent and encouragement of the Bishops Ordinary of Mohylev, Warsaw, and Sejny, as well as of the surviving Superior General, they have dedicated themselves to strive for resur- rection of the work, and, in accordance with the rules of this Holy Congregation of the Religious, they have fortunately achieved this. They only regarded it as necessary that the constitutions of the Institute be slightly modified so that in the future, taking the circum- stances into consideration, solemn vows not be professed but simple ones, and that the service for the dead which was said daily accord- ing to the old constitutions, was benevolently replaced by worship by the monks specifically to support the souls in Purgatory but without imposing any particular obligation. After the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Holy Congregation for the Religious described and presented this decree, together with the amended constitutions which precede it, to the Holy Father Pope Pius X at the audience on September 15, 1910, His Holiness benevo- lently deigned to bestow his approval upon the Institute thus reformed and upon said constitutions; and he allowed for a change of the ser- vice for the dead, preserving nevertheless the Apostolic Constitutions and jurisdiction by bishops, any other rules and regulations notwith- standing Given in Rome, the 28th of November, 1910. J. C. Cardinal Vives, Prefect Donatus Archbishop of Ephesus, Secretary (seal) Printed in the appendix to: Constitutiones, pp. 366-367; the same text in: Elenchus domorum religiosarum et sodalium Congregationis