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