Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/629

Rh ANTIGUA

563

ANTIMENSIUM

the whole tribe still hold fsist the faith preached to them, despite the efforts iii:ide from time to time to rob them of it and the piuicity of priestly lalx)urers in the fifty years tliiit followed the fall of I.oiiisbourg, .'ittests llio th<)rougliiics.s with whic-li tlic early

TlIK Cathkdral. AmiuONI.'.H

RecoUet and Jesuit Fathers did their work. Till the closing years of the eighteenth century, some hundreds of the aborigines, together with a remnant of the first Trench settlers, known as Acadians, and a few Irish families, made up the Catholic popula- tion of what is now the Diocese of Antigonish. In 1791, the first party of Catholic immigrants from the Scottish Highlands reached I'ictou in two ships. Driven from their native braes and glens by the rapacity of the landlords, who turned their ancestral holdings into sheepwalks, they found new homes and free holdings in the wild woods of Nova Scotia. From this time forward the tide of Scotti-sh immi- gration gathered strength, until it reached its highest point in 1S17. In July, l.S2, ab<nit I..50 Highland S<'Ottish Catholics were settled along the shores of the (!ulf of St. Lawrence. For the greater part of the time they were without a priest, save for the occasional visits of the Hev. Angiis Hernard Mac- Eachern afterwards Hishop of Charlottetown, P. E. I., who braved the perils of the sea in an open boat to bring them the consolations of religion. In the same year two priests came out from Scotland, and these in time were followed by others. They shared with their people the hardships incident to pioneer life in "the forest primeval." Among the priests who lal)oured during the first two decades of the nineteenth centurj' in the territorj' now com- prised in the Diocese of .\ntigonisli were Abb6 Le- jamtel, among the Acadians; the IJcvcrends Alex- ander MacDonncl, William Chisholm, and Colin Gnwit. in the Scottish settlements on the mainland; the Reverend James Grant, an Irish priest, in An- tigonish; the Reverend Ale.xander >IaeDonnell in the Scottish settlements in Cape Breton, and Father Vincent, founder of the Trappist Monastery at Tracadie, among the Micmacs and Acadians. The last-named, known in the Gaelic-speaking com- munities as .1 Sagart Han, or White Priest, from the flowing white robe of his Order, which he wore also on his missionary journeys, was a man of singularly I.— 36

lioly life. The first .session of the court, appointed in li)0.") to inquire into his title to sainthood, was li»l(l in June, 190(i.

.St. Francis Xavier's College, established at Anti- gonish in 1855, and endowed with university powers in 1800, is the chief .seat of learning. Mt. St. Bernard, an academy for young ladies, conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame, is affiliated to St. Francis Xavier's. The Sisters of Notre Dame have eight other convents within the diocese; the Sisters of Charity, six; the Daughters of Jesus, lately come from France, four; the Sisters of St. Martha, one. The Trappists, at Petit Clair vaux, Tracadie, are the only religious order of men. In 1871, the Catholic population was 02,&53; in 1891, it was 73,500, of whom about 42,000 were Highland Scotch, 19,000 French, 11,000 Irish, and 1,.500 Micmacs. The present population is in the neighbourhood of 80,000. There are 101 priests, including 11 Trappists, 07 churches with resident pastors, and 34 missions with churches.

O'HniKN- (late -Archbishop of Halifax), Memoirs of Bishop Burke (Ottawa. 1894); Mac.Millan, History of the Catholic Church in Prince Eduard Island (Quebcc.lBOS): Brow.n, His- tory of Cnpe Breton (lAilwXon, 1809); BouRINOT, Cape Breton and Us Memorials (.Montreal. 1892): Maci-eod, History of the Devotion to the Blessed Virffin in North America (Cincinnati, 1800. — This work contains an eloquent chapter on the HiRh- land Scottish emigration): Mac(1ii.i.iv«ay. The Casket (files); Xarerian, Golden JubiUe Number (Oct. 1905).

Alexaxdek MacDonald.

AntigTia. See Roseau.

Antimensium, also Antiminsion (Gr. dn-i^iji'ffioj', from ami. instc:id of, and mensa, table, altar), a consecrated corporal of a kind used only in the (ireek Kite. It is called in Russian and Slavonic anlimins, and an.swers substantially to the portable altar of the Roman Rite. It consists of a strip of fine linen or .silk, usually ten inches wide and about thirteen to fourteen inches long, ornamented with the instruments of the Pa.ssion,or with a representa- tion of Our Lord in the Sepulchre; it also contains relics of the saints which are sewn into it, and certified by the bishop. It is requirc<l to be placed on the altar in Greek churches just as an altar-stone is required in the Latin churches, and no Mass may be said upon an altar of that rite which has no anti- mensium. It is unfolde<l at the Offertory quite like the Latin corporal. Outside of the Mass it rests on the altar, foldetl in four parts, and enclosed in another piece of linen know^l :is the hcilcton. Originally it was intendetl for missionaries and priests travelling in places where there was no con.secrated altar, or where there was no bishop available to con.secrate an altar. The bishop consecrated the antimensium almost as he would an altar, and the priest carried it with him on his journey, and spread it over any temporarj- altar to celebrate Mass. Originally, therefore, it stood literally for its name; it was useil instead of the Holy Table for the Sacrifice of the Ma.ss.

The word anlimensium is met with for the first time about the end of the eighth and the begin- ning of the ninth centuries. The rapid adoption of the object was owing hirgely to the spread of Icono- cla.sm and other heresies. In the seventh canon of the Seventh General Council (787) it was ordered that '■ according to ancient custom which we shoulil follow the Holy .Sacrifice should only be offered on an altar con.secrated by placing the relics of the .saints or of martjTs therein" (Mansi, XIII, 42S). .\s a result of this decree the use of the antimensimn became quite general, because, owing to various heresies and sciiisms it was doubtful whether the altar ii\ mnnberle.ss churches had ever been con- .secnited by a bishop, or whether that rite h;id ever been canonically i)erformed; on the other hand, all were anxious to comply with the canon. By the use