in ecclesiastical law. See PATRONAGE.

PRESENTATION of the Virgin, is a feast of the Roman Catholic Church. Presentation of our Lady also gives the title to three orders of nuns. The first, projected in 1618, by a maid named Joan of Cambrai. The habit of the nuns, according to the vision she pretended to have, was to be a gray gown of natural wool, &c.; but this project was never accomplished. The second was established in France, about the year 1627, by Nicholas Sanguin, bishop of Senlis; it was approved by Urban VIII. This order never made any great progress. The third was established in 1664, when Frederic Borromeo, being apostolical visitor in the Valteline, was intreated by some devout maids at Murbegno to allow them to live in community in a retired place; which he granted, and erected them into a congregation, under the title of congregation of our Lady. They live under the rule of St Augustine.