Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/145

 MEDIA

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MEDIA

August, 1804, the See of Aiitioquia was erected, and on 4 February, 1868, the title of the diocese was re- moved from Antiociuia to the growing town of Medel- lin. On 2!) Jan., 1873, the See of Antioquia (An- TlOQUiENsis) was re-established, and on 11 April, I'JOO, a port-ion of tlic Diocese of Medellin went to consti- tute the newly erected See of Manizales (Manizalen- sis). As the civil districts are now constituted, the Department of Antioquia embraces an area of 11, .517 square miles with a population of 160,000; that of Medellin an area of 12,137 with a population of 275,- 000; that of Manizales an area of 4439 with a popula- tion of 242,000 (The Statesman's Year-Book, 1910). There are about 5000 savage Indians scattered in these regions.

Medellin on the River Force, 147 miles from Bo- gotii, and 4600 feet above sea-level, is the capital of the Department of Medellin. In 1910 it had a population of 60,000. It was named in 1575 after the Count of Medellin in Spain, but did not begin to prosper until the gold and silver mines were discovered in the neighbourhood early in the nineteenth century. It has 7 churches, 2 chapels, and a pro-cathedral; a new cathedral is being constructed in the Plaza de Bolivar. Among important institutions in the town are a seminary, a university, the College of St. Ignatius, under the Jesuits (founded by Father Friere in the eighteenth century), and the College of St. Joseph, under the Christian Brothers. The Presentation Nuns conduct schools for girls ; the Sisters of Charity have charge of a hospital; and the Discalced Carmelites have a convent. Among the periodicals published in Medellin are " Registro Official", "Cronica Judicial", "El Preceptor", "El Elector", and "La Consigna".

The See of Medellin was raised to metropolitan rank on 24 Feb., 1902. The archdiocese has 363,710 inhabitants, 110 (jriests, 15 regulars, 75 churches and chapels, 141 Catholic schools, in which 16,035 pupils are being educated. The present archbishop is Mgr. Em. Jose de Cavzedo y Cuero, born in Bogota, 16 Nov., 1850; chosen Bishop of Pasto, 11 Feb., 1892; transferred to Popayan, 2 Dec, 1895 ; made archbishop 14 Dec, 1001 ; and transferred to Medellin 14 Dec, 1905, to succeed Mgr. Pardo Vergara, the fir.st Arch- bishop of Medellin.

Antioquia on the Cauca was founded by Jorge Robledo in 1542; until 1826 it was the capital of the Department of Antioquia. Its population is esti- mated at 10,077. In 1720 a Jesuit college was estab- lished at Antioquia under the auspices of Bishop Go- mez Friar, of Popayan, and on 5 Feb., 1727, a royal charter was granted to the college, and the fathers were given charge of the church of St. Barbara. A few years later they opened a second college at Buga. Among the more important buildings of the city are the cathedral, the tiishop's hou.se, the Jesuit college, and a hospital. On account of malaria the sem- inary has been removed from Antioquia to San Pedro.

The diocese has a population of 211,315; 75 priests; 80 churches and chapels. The present bishop is Mgr Em. Ant. Lopez de Mesa, born at Rio Negro in the Diocese of Medellin, 22 March, 1846, and suc- ceeded Mgr Rueda as Bishop of Antioquia, 2 June, 1902.

Manizales is about 100 miles from Bogotd and 7000 feet above sea-level. Founded in 1848 it has developed rapidly owing to the gold mining operations in the neighbourhood ; population in 1905, 20,000. The town suffered severely from earthquakes in 1875 and 1878.

The Diocese of Manizales was created 11 April, 1900, from territory formerly belonging to the arch- dioceses of Popayan and Medellin. The cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The present and first bishop is Mgr. Gregory Hoyos, bom at Vahos, 1 Dec. 1849; appointed 11 May, iOOl.

Pethe, The Republic of Colombia (London. 1906); Cassani, Historia de la Compania de Jesus; Borda, Compendio de His- toria de Colombia (Bogoti, 1890); Holton, Twenty Months in the Andes (New York); Nunez, La Republique de Colombie (Brussels, 1SS3) ; Annuaire Pontifical (1910).

J. C. Obey.

Media and Medes (MrjSio, M-^Soi), an ancient country of Asia and the inhabitants thereof. The Hebrew and Assyrian form of the word Media is no {Mad<ii) which corresponds to the Ulada by which the land is designated in the earliest Persian cuneiform texts. The origin and signification of the word are unknown. In Gen., x, 2, Madai is mentioned among the sons of Japheth, between Magog (probably the Gimirrhi and the Lydians) and Javan, i. e. the lonians. In IV Kings, xvii, 6 (cf. xviii, 11) we read that Sal- manasar. King of the Assyrians "took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria; and he placed them in Hala and Habor by the river of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes". Reference is made to the Medos in Jer., xiii, 17 (cf. xxi, 2) as enemies and future de- stroyers of Babylon, and again in chapter xxv, verse 25, the "kings of the Medes" are mentioned in a similar connection. The only reference to the Medes in the New Testament is in Acts, ii, 9, where they are mentioned between the Parthians and the Elam- ites.

The earliest information concerning the territory occupied by the Medes, and later in part by the Per- sians, is derived from the Babylonian and Assyrian texts. In these it is called Anshan, and comprised probably a vast region bounded on the north-west by Armenia, on the north by the Caspian Sea, on the east by the great desert, and on the south by Elam. It included much more than the territory originally known as Persia, which comprised the south-eastern portion of Anshan, and extended to Carmania on the east, and southward to the Persian Gulf. Later, how- ever, when the Persian supremacy eclipsed that of the Medes, the name of Persia was extended to the whole Median territory. Ethnological authorities are agreed that the heterogeneous peoples who under the general name of Medes occupietl this vast region in historic times, were not the original inhabitants. They were the successors of a prehistoric population as in the case of the historic empires of Egypt and Assyria; and likewise, little or nothing is known of the origin or racial ties of these earlier inhabitants. If the Medes who appear at the dawn of history had a written literature, which is hardly probable, no fragments of it have been preserved, and conse- quently nothing is directly known concerning their language. Judging, however, from the proper names that have come down to us, there is reason to infer that it differed only dialectically from the Old Persian. They would thus be of Aryan stock, and the Median empire seems to be the result of the earliest attempt on the part of the Aryans to found a great conquering monarchy.

The fir.st recorded mention of the people whom the Greeks calletl Medes occurs in the cuneiform in- scription of Shalmanescr II, King of Assyria, who claims to have vanquished the Madai in his twenty- fourth campaign, about 836 B. c. Whatever may have been the extent of this conquest, it was by no means permanent, for the records of the succeeding reigns down to that of Asshurbanipal (668-625), who vainly strove to hold them in check, constantly refer to the "dangerous Medes" (so they are called in the in.scriptions of Tiglath-Pileser, IV, 747-727), in terms which show that their aggressive hostility had become a grave and ever-increasing menace to the power of the Ass}Tians. During that period the power of Anshan was gradually strengthened by the accession and as- similation of new peoples of Aryan stock, who estab- lished themselves in the territory once held by the Assyrians east of the Tigris. Thus after the year 640 B. c. the names of the native rulers of Elam