“In the Annals of the Four Masters, and other ancient records, mention of pilgrimages to this island seldom recurs. It was a mere matter of private devotion, and did not precisely fall within the province of history. In the sixteenth century, we learn from the Bollandists, that it was sometimes visited by 1,500 persons at the same time.(61) Dr. Fleming tells us how such numbers flocked to it in 1625, that many had to return without finding room to land upon the island. Nor since then has its celebrity decreased; and we find that, before the famine years of 1847, this sanctuary was annually visited by no fewer than 10,000 pilgrims.(62) At the present day the average number of daily pilgrims, during the _station months_, is very considerable, and the total annual number is estimated at several thousands. “Besides the many accounts of this Purgatory, published more as matters of romance(63) than history, there are several valuable treatises which deserve attention. Not only Lombard and Messingham, in the works already alluded to, but the Bollandists (17 March); Dr. Lanigan (vol. iv. p. 290, seqq.); Colgan, in his _Trias Thaumaturga_ (p. 27); and Feijoo, the celebrated Spanish critic, in his _Theatro Critico_ (tom. vii. p. 157), give several important facts, together with many judicious remarks concerning this venerated sanctuary of Lough Derg. The valuable notes of Dr. Matthew Kelly to the first volume of _Cambrensis Eversus_ (pp. 138-155), throw much light on the subject. See also, a very rare treatise, entitled, _A Brief History of St. Patrick’s Purgatory_, written by the Rev. Cornelius Nary, parish priest of Michan’s, and published in Dublin in 1718.” LITURGICAL QUESTIONS. We purpose in this number of the _Record_ to answer a few practical questions connected with the office of the dead, which have been forwarded to us: 1. Is it proper for the president of the choir to wear the alb and cincture during the recitation of the office of the dead—the matins and lauds? 2. Should he wear stole and cope, or either? 3. Is it correct to say the Requiem aeternam after the prayer at lauds when the Mass follows? 4. is it proper for the priest who presides in the choir to perform the absolution after Mass? ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 1. It is not proper for the president of the choir to wear the alb and cincture at matins and lauds. There is a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites which appears to bear on this subject. The question proposed was: