OCTAVE OF PRAYERS FOR THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. - A pious practice instituted by Fr. ODINGTON, WALTER (v.), in 1908, while he was still a Protestant minister in America and had founded the two Congregations of the Atonement, male and female, at Graymoor.
His intention was to stir up prayers throughout the world for the return of England and the various Protestant sects to unity with the Roman Church and with the Roman Pontiff, the sole Vicar of Jesus Christ. The chosen time was from January 18 (feast of the Chair of St. Peter in Rome) to January 25 (feast of the Conversion of St. Paul). For each of the days a particular intention is prescribed: 18th, for the return of all stray sheep to the one fold of Peter; 19th, for the return of all the separated of the East; 20th, for the submission of Anglicans to the authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ; 21st, for the return of Lutherans and other Protestant sects of continental Europe; 22nd, for the return of Christians residing in America; 23rd, that non-practicing Catholics may return to the practice of the Sacraments; 24th, for the conversion of the Israelites; 25th, for the missionary conquest of the world for Jesus Christ.
The first octave was celebrated in 1908 in the two convents of Graymoor; in 1909 many other churches in the United States took part; already on October 30, 1909, the two convents fully submitted to the Holy See. From then on the practice spread ever more widely. Pius X approved and blessed it in December 1910; Benedict XV extended it to the whole Church by an apostolic brief of November 15, 1916; Pius XII enriched it with an indulgence on December 10, 1940: 300 days for each day of the octave; a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, on the last day. Since 1946 the center of the octave has been in the church of St. Onuphrius on the Janiculum, entrusted to the Franciscan Fathers of the Atonement.