in church history, a sect, towards the close of the fourth century, denominated from a little cake, called by the Greeks κολλύρια, collyridia, which they offered to the Virgin Mary. This sect, it seems, consisted chiefly of Arabian women, who, out of an extravagant devotion to the Virgin, met on a certain day in the year to celebrate a solemn feast, and to render divine honours to Mary as to a goddess, eating the cake which they offered in her name. St Epiphanius, who relates the history of this superstitious ceremony, ridicules it.