Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/337

 PORT

291

PORTO

The Diocese of Porto and Santa Rufina has 18 parishes, with 4600 inhaljitants.

Puzzt Gerarchia cardinalizia; Cappelletti. Le Chiese irllnlin I- DE Rossi in BuUettino d'archeologia crisi. (1866), 37; ToMMASSETTI in Archirio delta Soc. Rom. di Storia Patria. XXIII (1900). 143; Battandier, Annuaire Ponlifical Calhotique (Paris, 1910).

U. Benigni.

Port of Spain, Archdiocese of (Portus His- paxi.e). an archiepiscopal and metropohtan see, in- cluding the Islands of Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia. The Catholic population is about 200,000. Cliristianity was introduced by the Spanish discoverers, and missions estabUshed in those islands where permanent settlements were effected. The first preachers of the Faith in Trinidad were Fathers Francisco de Cordova and Juan Garces, both Dominicans, who died at the hands of the Indians in 1513. The Franciscans arrived in 1.596, and maintained their connexion with Trinidad until the British occupation in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Fathers Esteban de San Felix, Marco de Vique, and a lay-brother, Ramon de Figuerola, Francis- cans, were slaugh- tered bj' the natives in 1699. Their bodies were interred in the parish church of San Jose de Oruna, then the chief town of the colony, and they were venerated as martj-rsof the Faith. The Governor of the colony, Don Jose de Leon, and a Domini- can, Father Juan de Mosin .Sotomayor, lost their lives de- fending them. The Dominicans and other religious la- boured in Grenada and the other islancb, but as these colonies fell into British hands they were replaced by the secular clergy. When in 1797 Trinidad was surrerdered to Great Britain the status of the Cathohc re- hgion underwent no change, as stipulated in the terms of capitulation granted by Sir Ralph Aber- crombic. The new authorities undertook to con- tribute to the maintenance of the clergy and continue to do so. In 1820 at the instance of Governor Sir Ralph Woodford, the Trinidad Cathohcs were with- drawn from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Guayana, Venezuela, and Mgr. James Buckle)' was appointed the firrft bishop. The cathedral of Port of Spain was built during his administration. He was succeeded by Mgr. McDonnell, whose successor was Mgr. Richard Smith, the first archbishop. Mgr Vincent Spaccapietra, his successor, is held in veneration for his heroic exertions during an epidemic of cholera. On Mgr Spaccapietra's transfer to the See of Smyrna, Mgr. Ferdinand English was appointed to Port of Spain. He was succeeded by Mgr. J. L. Gonin, O.P., who requested the Dominicans to resume in Trinidad the work begun by their predecessors in early Spanish days. A small number arrived in 1864; their number increased under Mgr. Patrick Vincent Flood, O.P., and their work extended to Grenada. On Mgr. Flood's death in 1907, during an extended vacancy of the .see, the name of a Canadian Dominican, Father Albert Knapp, unaccountably appeared as Archbishop of Port of Spain in many newspapers and a year book. Th(> Holv See appointed the present archbishop, Mer. Diiwling, b. in County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1886, consecrated 1909. Before his

elevation to the episcopate he held important offices in his order, ha\-ing been professor, novice-master, and pre\dous to his coming to Trinidad as vicar- general of the archdiocese, rector of the well-known College of San Clemente, Rome. Most of the clergy are from France, England, and Ireland, only a few are natives of the diocese. Enghsh is taught exclusively in the schools and most generally spoken, though Creole patois is ^-idely used by the lower classes except in Tobago and St. Vincent. Spanish is spoken in some parishes of Trinidad and by Venezuelan residents of Port of Spain. There are also many Portuguese. Confessors with a knowl- edge of these languages are provided and sermons preached in English, French, Spanish, and Portu- guese. Work amongst the East Indian immigrants makes a knowledge of the dialects of Hindustan needful. Number of parishes, 48; secular clergy, 20; Order of Preachers, 40; Congregation of the Holy Ghost, 15; Fathers of Marj' Immaculate, 20; and a few members of the Order of St. Augustine. Higher schools for bo)-s, 2, for girls, 4; 1 orphanage and 2 alms-houses. The Leper Asylum and the municipal alms-house are under the care of the Sisters of St. Dominic, and many of the elemen- tarj- schools under that of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

BoRDE. Histaire de Vile de la Trinidad (Paris, 1882); CoTHONAT. Tri- nidad (Paris, 1893); Fraser. History of Trin- idad (Port of Spain, 1891); GuMiLU, El Ori- noco ilustrado (Barce- lona, 1882).

Mich.^^elO'Btrxe.

Porto Rico

(Puerto Rico), the smallest and most easterly of the Greater Antilles, rec- tangular in shape, with an area of 3670 square miles, and the most densely inhabited country in America, haN-ing a population of 1,118,012, over 304 to the square mile, according to the census of 1910; a growth of 125,769 the last ten years.

On 16 Nov., 1493, on his second voyage, the moun- tain El Yunque, on the north-east coast of the island then known as Boriquen, was seen by Columbus, whose fleet anchored in the port near Aguadilla. A monument erected in the fourth century of the dis- covery marks the site between Aguada and Aguadilla, where presumably the admiral took possession of the newly discovered territory in the nameof his sovereign. The island was named San Juan in honour of St. John the Baptist.

Among those who accompanied Columbus was Vincent Yanez, the j'ounger of the brothers Pinzon, who had commanded the ill-fated "Nina" on the voyage of the year previous. In 1499 a royal permit was granted him to fit out a fleet to explore the region south of the lands discovered by Columbus. After coasting along the shores of Brazil and advancing up the River Amazon, then called Maranon, he returned by way of Hispaniola, to be driven for refuge from storm into the port of Aguada.

From the natives, who received him kindly, it was learned that there was considerable gold in the island. On his return to Spain, Pinzon sought to obtain cer- tain privileges to colonize San Juan de Boriquen. It was only after the death of Isabella that he obtained a royal permit from Ferdinand the Catholic, dated 24 April, 1.505, authorizing him to colonize the island of San Juan de Boriquen, without intervention on the.