Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/628

Rh ANTICONCORDATAIRES

562

ANTIGONISH

tr. by Keanf. (1S90>; Gcnkei., Srhopfung iind Chaos (1895), 221, sqq.: Zaun, liinlritung (see Index); Schurer, Geschicle dea jndischen Volkcs, U, 532; Newman, The Patriatic Idea of AntichrUl, Xo. S.i of Tracts lor the Times, republished in Discussions and Arijuments on Various Subjects (London, New York, and Bombay, 1897); Id., The Protestant Idea of Antichrist in Kssavs Critical and Historical (London, New York, and Bombay, 1897), II; Alford, Greek Testament; Prolegomena to Thess. and Apoc. (London, 1856, 1861); Words- worth, On the Apocalypse (London, 1849); Maitland, Pro- yhetic Interpretation (London, 1849); Clissold, Apocalyptical nterpretation (London, 1845); Ellicott, Comment, on Thess. (London, 1858); Jowett, Excursus on the Man of Sin, in his Epistles of St. Paul (Irfjndon, 1859); Robinson, Revised Edi- tion of Rayland's tr. of Neander, Pflanzung, etc. (New York, 1865); Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apoc. (Andover, 1845); Greswell, Exposition of the Parables (Oxford, 1834), I; Noves The .\pocnhipse .inalyzed and Explained, in The Christian Examiner (.May, 1860). A. J. JIaaS.

Anticoncordataires. See Petite Eglise, La.

Antidicomarianites. — An Eastern sect which flouri.shod al)cnit ,\. D. 200 to -100, and which was so designatetl a.s being the "opponents of Mary". The P^bionites were the first who maintained that Our Lord was merely the son of Joseph and Mary. This doctrine became repugnant even to their own ad- lierents, and it was afterwards modified so as to teach that, although Our Lord was born of Mary through the Holy Ghost, afterwards Joseph and Mary lived in wedlock and had many other children. The sect denied the formula " ever- Virgin Mary " used in the Greek and Roman Liturgies. The earliest reference to this sect appears in TertuUian, and the doctrines taught by them are expressly mentioned by Origen (Homilia in Lucam, III, 940). Certain Arians, Eudocius and Eunomius, were great sup- porters of the teaching. The sect attained its great- est development in Arabia towards the end of the fourth century, and the name Antidicomarianites was specifically applied to it by St. Epiphanius who wrote against them in an interesting letter giving the history of the doctrine and proofs of its falsity (St. Epiphanius, Contra Haeres., Ixxviii, 1033 sqq.). Migne, p. G. (Paris, 1862); Origen, XIII, 1813; Idem, St. Epiphanius, XLII, 699-739.

Andrew J. Shipman.

Antidoron (Gr., ivri, instead of; SUpov, a gift; i. e. a gift instead of). The remains of the loaves or cakes from which the various portions are cut for consecration in the Mass, according to the fireek Rite, are gathered up on a plate, or salver, in the sanctuary and kept upon the prothesis, or side- altar, during the celebration of the Mass. They are usually cut up into small fragments, and, at the con- clusion of the Mass, after the celebrant has retired from the altar, the deacon (or in churches where there is no deacon, the priest) brings the salver out through the royal doors and standing in front of the ironostasis gives to each of the faithful, supposed to be fasting, a small fragment of the blessed bread which is taken and eaten by the worsliipper before leaving the church. The giving of the antidoron is regularly followed in the Russian Orthodox and the Greek (Hellenic) Orthodox churches at every Mass, and it is an interesting sight to watch the worshippers crowding up in lines to obtain the blessed bread. In the Cireek Oaiholic churches of Austria and Hungary the antidoron i.s given only on rare occasions during the year, chiefly on the Saturday in Easter week; while among the Greek Catholics of Italy and Sicily It IS usually given only on Holy Thursday, the Feast of the Assumption, that of St. Nicolas of Myra, and at ccrtam week-day masses in Lent; although according to some local customs it is given on other days. It may seem strange that the earliest historical reference l<) this custom should be found in the Western ( 'hurch. It is mentioned in the 1 18th letter of St. Au- gustine to Januarivis (now known a.s (he .54th letter ui the new order. .See Migne, P. L., XXXIII, 200), and in the canons of a local council in Gaul in the seventh century. Originally it was a substitute,

or solatium for such of the faithful a.s were not pre- pared to go to Communion or were unable to get to the Holy Sacrifice. If they could not partake of the body of Our Lord they had the consolation of partaking of the bread which had been blessed and from which the portions for consecration had been taken. In the Eastern Church mention of the antidoron began to appear about the ninth and tenth centuries. Germanius of Constantinople is the earliest Eastern author to mention it in his treatise, "The Explanation of the Liturgy", about the ninth century. Subsequent to him many writers of the separated Eastern Church (Balsamon, Colina, Pache- meros) have written on the custom of giving the antidoron. The usage to-day in the Orthodox Greek Church, following the Nomocanon, is to employ the fragments or unused pieces of the various pros- phoro', except that from which the agnetz is taken, for the purpose of the antidoron. The canonical regulations of the Russian Orthodox and Greek (Hellenic) Orthodox Churches require that the anti- doron should be consumed before leaving the church, and that it should not be distributed to unbelievers or to persons undergoing penance before absolution. While the rite still continues in the East it was finally given up by the Western Church, and now only survives in the Roman Rite in the pain bin it given in the French churches and cathedrals at High Mass, in certain churches of Lower Canada, and occa- sionally in Italy, on certain feasts. A similar custom also obtains among the Syrian Christians (Christians of St. Thomas) of the Malabar coast in India.

Neale, History of the Holy Eastern Church (London. 1850), I. 525; CoRBLET, Hist, de VEucharistie (Paris, 1885), I. 254-255; Clugnet, Dictionnaire des noms liturgiques (Paris, 1895), 13; Parrino, La Messa Greca (Palermo, 1904), 20; Charron, Les saintes liturgies (Paris, 1904), 70; Hapgood, Service Book of the Orthodox Church (New York, 1906), 600; Pravos- lavnaya Encyclopedia (St. Petersburg, 1900), I, 795-796.

Andrew J. Shipman.

Antigonish (Micmac, nalagitkooneech, "where the branches are torn off"), is the shiretown of the county of the same name in Nova Scotia. On the 23d of August, 1SS6, it was made the see of one of the dioceses constituting the ecclesiastical province of Halifax. The first see was Arichat. The diocese takes in the three easternmost counties of Nova Scotia proper, with the whole island of Cape Breton. Up to 1817, Nova Scotia formed a part of the Diocese of Quebec; in that year it was erected into a vicar- iate, and the Right Rev. Edmund Burke appointed vicar Apostolic. He was succeeded, in 1827, by the Right Rev. William Eraser. On the 21st of September, 1844, the vicariate was divided, and two dioceses were formed, the sees being Halifax and Arichat. Bishop Fraser was appointed to the latter see. An alumnus of the Scottish College at Valla- dolid, he was a strong man, physically and mentally fitted to play the part of pioneer missionary bishop. He died 4 October, 1851, and was succeeded, 27 February, 1852, by the Right Rev. Colin Francis MacKinnon, D.D., a graduate of Propaganda. He was a man of apostolic zeal, and of singularly amiable character. Failing health led him to resign, 19 January, 1877, when his coadjutor, the Right Rev. John Cameron, D.D., also a graduate of Propaganda, and consecrated at Rome, 22 May, 1870, became administrator of the diocese. On his resigning this charge, Bishop MacKinnon was made titular Arch- bishop of Ainida. He died two years later, 26 Sep- tember, 1879.

Within the Diocese of Antigonish is the historic town of Louisbourg. As fiir back as 1C04 French priests were in Nova Scotia, then known as Acadie, or Acadia. Between that date and the taking of Louisbourg by the English in 175S, the indefatigable missionaries of France busied themselves with the evangelization of the native Micmacs. The fact that