Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/756

 RECHAB

676

RECTOR

Manfred, was deprived of the see which was retrans- ferred to Osimo. Restored in 1289, the See of Recanati was again transferred, in 1320, to Macerata. In 1357 Recanati, united with Macerata, was again made a diocese. Noteworthy bishops were: Marino del Tocco (1412), whose election was contested by the party of John XXIII and King Ladislaus; Giovanni V'iteUeschi (1431), afterwards cardinal and com- mander of the armies of Eugenius IV. In the six- teenth century the sees of Macerata and Recanati were several times separated and reunited. In 1586 Sixtus V definitely separated iMacerata from Recanati and created the Diocese of Loreto, to which in 1591 was added ceque principaliter that of Recanati. The first bishop of the united sees was Rutiho Benzoni (1587), who was succeeded by the cardinals Agostino Gelamini (1613) and Giulio Roma (1621). Other bishops were: Cardinal Alessandro Crescenzi (1676), and Lorenzo Gherardi (1693), both famed for their benefactions; Stefano BclUni (1807) and Giuseppe Cardoni (1863-67). The ancient Abbey of S. Maria in Potenza is in this diocese. Recanati was the birth- place of Blessed Girolamo Gherarducci and Blessed Plaeido (fourteenth century), also of the litterateurs Monaldo and Giacomo Leopardi. The united dio- ceses have 8 parishes with a population of 26,000; 48 secular and 40 regular priests; 8 religious houses of men and 12 of women; 1 school for boys and 5 for girls.

C.tPPELLETTi, Le chicse d' Italia, VII (Venice. 1857): Vogel, De ecclesiis Recanaiensi et Laurelana (Recanati, IS59).

U. Benigni.

Rechab and the Rechabites. — Rechab was the father of Jonadab who in IV Kings, x, 15-28, appears as a fervent supporter of Jehu's attack on the House of Achab in his endeavour to root out the idolatrous worship which that djTiasty had encouraged. The characteristic principles which actuated his descend- ants, the Rechabites, we gather from Jeremias, XXXV, where the Rechabites, being invited to drink wine, answered: "We mil not drink wine: be- cause Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, com- manded us, saying: You shall drink no wine, nei- ther you, nor your children, for ever: Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, nor have any, but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are strangers" (Jer., xxxv, 6, 7). It was evidently' the belief of Jonadab and the Rechabites that settled life with its forms of civil- zation led to apostasy from the Jewish religion. In I Par., ii, 55, the clan of the Rechabites is connected with the Cinites (Kenites).

ViGouRoux, Diet, de la Bible, a. v.

James F. Driscoll.

Recollection, as understood in respect to the spiritual life, means attention to the presence of God in the soul. It includes the -withdrawal of the mind from exiern.al and earthly affairs in order to attend to God and Di\'ine things. It is the same as interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God.

This recollection is twofold: one which may be ac- quired by our own efforts aided by the ordinary grace of God. Thus any devout soul can acquire the habit of thinking of God's presence and of fixing attention upon Him and his Divine perfections. This is called active recollection. The other, called pa.ssive, does not depend upon our own efforts, but is an ex-traordi- nary grace infu.sed by God, by which He summons to- gether the faculties of the soul and manifests His presence and His perfections; this kind of recollection is classed by mystical writers as the first degree of in- fused contemplation.

The first kind of recollection belongs to ascetical devotion and practice. It is necessary for all who wish to attain Christian perfection. Without it, it is

most difficult to make progress in virtue. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the means by which it may be acquired. These are: (1) silence and solitude, ac- cording to our state of hfe, keeping in mind, at the same time, that one may be recollected amidst the duties of an active life; (2) the avoidance of distract- ing and dissipating occupations not dictated by reason or required by necessity. Multiphcity of oc- cupations is an obstacle to recollection. Father Faber says that the man who undertakes too much is a foolish man, if not a guilty one. (3) The frequent exercise of the presence of God. As recollection is itself an application of the mind to the Divine presence within us, it is e\ddent that the shortest way to its acquisition is frequently to call to mind that our souls are the temples of God.

Bell^cius, Solid Virtue (Dublin, 1S79); Blosius, A Book of Spiritual Instruction, tr. Wilberforce (London, 1900); Podlain, The Graces of Interior Prayer (London, 1910).

Arthur Devine.

Recollects. See Friars Minor.

Rector (Lat. regere, to rule). — Priests who preside over missions or quasi-parishes are called rectors: in England and the United States they are removable and irremovable, or permanent. These latter are known also as missionary rectors (M. R.). The term rector is applied likewise to the heads of universities, seminaries, and colleges; to the local superiors of reli- gious houses of men; to the pope, as rector of the world, in the conferring of the tiara. In some uni- versities, e. g. Louvain, the actual president is known as rector rnagnificus. Rector general is the title given to the superior general of certain religious, e. g. Clerics Regular of the Mother of God. In ancient times bishops as rulers of cities and pro%'inces, especially in the Papal States, were called rectors; also administrators of the patrimony of the Church (e. g. rector Sicilice). To a rector who has resigned is often given the title rector emeritus. One who supplies the place usually occupied by a rector is styled pro- rector (in parishes, administrator), while assistants to rectors in institutions are known as vice-rectors (in parishes, as curates, assistant, or associate, rectors etc.). Rector is used by Gregory the Great in the "Regula Pastoralis" as equivalent to pastor.

Cone. Bait. Plen., Ill; Actu et Decreta (Baltimore. 1886); Taun- ton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906), s. v. Missionary

Andrew B. Meehan.

Rector Potens, Verax Deus, the daily hymn for Sext in the Roman Bre\dary, finds its theme in the great heat and light of the noonday {hora sexta, or sixth hour of the day) sun, and prays the Almighty Ruler to take from the heart the heat of passion. Baudot ("The Roman Breviary", London, 1909, 34) thinks the hymn "probably" by St. Ambrose: "We know, moreover, that the hymns for Vespers, Terce, and None (probably also the hymn for Sext) are his." Perhaps, however, Baudot refers to other hjTnns ascribed to the saint by Baumer ("Gesch. des Bre\'iers", 1895, 135). Whatever probabiUty at- taches to the hymns for Terce and None affects equally that for Sext, none of the three being found in the oldest Benedictine cycle, while all three are found in the later Celtic cycle. (For discussion of authorship, see Rerum Deus Tenax Vigor.) It is interesting to note that the second stanza is in rhyme throughout:

Exstingue flammas litium,

Aufer calorem noxium,

Confer salutem corporum

Veramque pacem cordium. Biraghi thinks the rhj-me merely a matter of chance; Pimont thinks it deliberate, but finds no sufficient reason in this fact for denying it to St. Ambrose. Johner ("A New School of Gregorian Chant", tr. New York, 1906, 55) selects the first line to illustrate