is a feast of the Roman Catholic Church. ish church, celebrated on the 21st of November, in memory of the Holy Virgin's being presented by her parents in the temple, to be there educated. Emmanuel Commenus, who began to reign in 1143, makes mention of this feast in his Constitutions. Some imagine it to have been established among the Greeks in the 11th century; and think they see evident proofs of it in some homilies of George of Nicomedia, who lived in the time of Photius. Its institution in the West is ascribed to Gregory XI. in 1372. Some think it was instituted in memory of the ceremony practised among the Jews for their newborn females; corresponding to the circumcision on the eighth day for males.

Presentation of our Lady also gives the title to three orders of nuns. The first, projected in 1618, by a maid named Joan of Cambrey. 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 apostolic visitor in the Valteline, was intreated by some devout maids at Morbegno 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.