Oblates

Oblates (Lat. oblatus, oblata, 'offered up'), the name of a class of religious bodies in the Roman Catholic Church, which differ from the religious orders strictly so called in not being bound by the solemn vows of the religious profession. The institute of oblates was one of the many reforms introduced in the diocese of Milan by St Charles Borromeo, towards the close of the 16th century. The members consisted of secular priests who lived in community, and were merely bound by a promise to the bishop to devote themselves to any service which he should consider desirable for the interest of religion. St Charles made use of their services chiefly in the wild and inaccessible Alpine districts of his diocese. The oblates of Mary Immaculate, founded at Marseilles in 1815, have nine houses in Britain, two in Ireland, and are numerous in Canada, British India, and the United States. Two Irish reformatories are under their charge.