fathers or religious of; the name of a congregation of regular canons of the order of St Augustine, established in France.

The congregation of St Geneviève is a reform of the Augustine canons. It was begun by St Charles Faure, in the abbey of St Vincent de Senlis, of which he was a member, in the year 1618.

In the year 1634, the abbey was made elective; and a general chapter, composed of the superiors of 15 houses who had now received the reform, chose Fr. Faure coadjutor of the abbey of St Geneviève, and general of the whole congregation. Such were its beginnings.

It has since increased very much, and it now consists of above a hundred monasteries; in some whereof the religious are employed in the administration of the parishes and hospitals: and in others, in the celebration of divine service, and the instruction of ecclesiastics in seminaries for the purpose.

The congregation takes its name from the abbey of St Geneviève, which is the chief of the order, and whose abbot is the general thereof. The abbey itself took its name from St Geneviève, the patroness of the city of Paris, who died in the year 512. Five years after her death, Clovis erected the church of St Geneviève, under the name and invocation of St Peter, where her relics are still, or were till lately preserved, her shrine visited, and her image carried with great processions and ceremonies upon extraordinary occasions, as when some great favour is to be entreated of heaven.