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reform them and was obliged to retire for a time, with a few of the more fer\ent monks, to a neighbouring priory. At length, however, he succeeded in bring- ing about a better state of things and was able to re- sume the government of his abbey. From that time forward its splendour and importance continued to increase under the wise rule of a succession of great abbots, to whom the right of pontificalia was granted by Alexander III in 1179. Most famous perhaps amongst these was Suger. the thirty-sixth of the series (1122-52). Besides being a great ecclesiastic he was also a great statesman and acted as Regent of France whilst King Louis VII was absent at the Crusades. The present church of St-Denis was commenced by him about 1140 and marks the beginning of the Gothic tendency in architecture and its transition from the Romanesque stj'lc. Further additions and altera- tions under succeeding abbots resulted in producing one of the finest Gothic buildings in France (see Gothic Architecture).

The abbey figured prominently in the history of France and its abbots were for several centuries amongst the chief seigneurs of the kingdom. The "Orifiamme", originally the banner of the abbey, became the standard of the kings of P>ance and was suspended above the high altar, whence it was only removed when the king took the field in person. Its last appearance was at the battle of Agincourt in 141.5. Joan of Arc hung up her arms in the church of St-Denis in 1429. Many kings and princes and other noble persons were buried there and three of the Roman pontiffs staved in the abbey at different times: Stephen II in 754, Innocent II in 1131, and Eugenius III in 1146. Another great abbot, Matthieu de Vendome, acted as administrator of the kingdom when St. Louis went to the Crusades in 1269. After the Council of Trent the Abbey of St-Denis became the head of a congregation of ten monasteries, and in 1633 it was united, with its dependent houses, to the new Congregation of St-Maur, when its conventual buildings were entirely reconstructed. In 1691 Louis XVI suppressed the abbacy and united the monastery with its revenues to the royal house of noble ladies at St-Cyr, founded by Madame de Maintenon. The abbey was finally dis.solvcd at the revolution, when much damage was done to the church and tombs. It was subsequently restored, under Napoleon III, by Viollet- le-Duc. The relics of St-Denis, which had been trans- ferred to the pari.sh church of the town in 1795, were brought back again to the abbey in 1819. It is now a "national monument" and one of the show-places of Paris. Many of the chartularies and other manu- scripts relating to its history are now either in the Archives Nationales or the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Ste Marthe, Gallia Christiana, VII (Paris, 1744); Doublet, Hintoire de Vabhaye de Saint-Denys (Paris, 162.5); Felibien, Hisloire de St-Denys (Paris, 1706); David, Les Gramles Abbayec de VOcHdent (Lille, 1907); Beale, The Churches of Paris (Lon- don, 1893). _ ^

G. Cyprian Alston.

Saint-Denis, Diocese of, erected in 1850 as suffra- gan of Bordf-aux, includes the Island of R('unir)n in the Indian Ocean about 3.50 miles etist of Madagascar. This Island is 1000 sq. miles in area, and was dis- covered by the Portugue,se, 8 P'ebniary, 1513; it was originally called Sancta Appollonia, and later changed to Mdscareigne from the name of their leader Mas- carenhas. In 1638 a Frenchman named Gaubert hoisted the French flag there, and in 1642 Pronis, rep- resenting the Compagnie de Lorient, took possession of it in the name of the King of France. In 1646 twelve Maflagascar colonists who had revolted were transported llicre, and in 1649 Flaf;ourt, Pronis's succfssfir, fhangefi the name from Mascareigne to Island of Jiourbf)n; from 16.54 to 16.58 an alfcmpt was made by Ant<^>inf! Thaunau, seven Frcmclurien, anfl six negroes to colonize the west coast; in 1663 Rcgnault,

who had been appointed governor of the island by the King, arrived with three ships bringing 20 labourers, a merchant, and 200 sick people, the first colonists of the island. The first apostles of Reunion were P. Louis de Matos, a Portuguese, who on his return journey from Brazil built the chapel of Our Lady of the Angels (1667), and P. Jourdi6, a Lazarist father, who remained on the island from 1667 to 1670. In 1674 P. Bernardin, a Capuchin, arrived from India; he drew up laws for hunting, planted cotton, taught the voung girls to sew and spin, and was governor of tlie island from 1686 to 1689. In 1689 he went to France to lay the needs of the island before Louis XIV. In 1703 Cardinal Maillard de Tournon, on his way to India, called at Reunion and adminis- tered confirmation.

In 1711 Clement XI entrusted the island to Lazarist missionaries, who began work there in 1714. In 1848 the island took the name of Reunion, slavery was abolished, and two years later the see was established. The first bishop was .lulien Desprez (1850-57), after- wards Archbishop of Toulouse and cardinal. In March, 1S51, he set out in the corvette "Cassini". The captain in charge, Francois de Plas, the ensign Jaussier, and the lieutenant Alexis Clerc, afterwards became Jesuits: Clerc died a victim of the Paris Commune. Gaulcjac, a midshipman on the same vessel, in after fife became a Carthusian. The Reunion priests are trained in Paris at the Seminary of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost and Sacred Heart of Mary which serves as diocesan seminary. In 1905 (at the breach of the Concordat) the island contained one parish served by the Holy Ghost Fathers; the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, a nursing and teaching order, had 28 establishments there, and the Daughters of Mary, also a nursing and teaching order, conducted 10 establishments; the population was 173,000; there were 54 parishes and 74 priests.

Hisloire ahrigee de Vile Bourbon, ou de la Reunion, depuis sa dScouverle jusqu'en 1880 (Saint-Deni.s, 188.3) ; Guet, Les origines de Vile Bourbon (Paris, 1885); Lacointa, Hisloire dti Cardinal Desprez (Paris, 1897).

Georges Goyau.

Saint-Die, Diocese of (Sancti Deodati), com- prises the Dei)artment of the Vosges. Suppressed by the Concordat of 1802 and then included in the Dio- cese of Nancy, it was re-established nominally by the Concordat of 1817, and in fact by a papal Bull of 6 October, 1822, and a royal ordinance of 13 January, 1823, as a suffragan of Besan^on. The Treaty of Frankfort (1871) cut eighteen communes from the Department of the Vosges, and added them to the Diocese of Strasburg. The Diocese of St-Di6 origi- nated in the celebrated abbey of that name. St. Deodatus (Di6) (b. towards the close of the sixth century; d. 679) came from Le Nivernais, or, ac- cording to some authorities, from Ireland; attracted by the reputation of St. Columbanus he withdrew to the Vosges, sojourning at Romont, and Arentelie, and in Alsace, where he made the acquaintance of Sts. Arbogast and Florentius. For some time he was a solitary at Wil)ra, doubtless the present Katzenthal in Alsace, but, being persecuted bj' the inhabitants, he went to the Vosges and founded a monastery, which he named Galil6e, on lands (called "Junc- tura;") given to him by Childeric II. The town of St-Di<'' now stands on this site. At the same time, Leudin Bodo, Bisliop of Toul, founded to the north of GaliKJe the monastery of Bonmoutier and to the south that of Etival ; Saint Gondelbert, perhaps after resigning the Archbishopric of Sens, had just founded the monastery of Senones to the east. These four monasteries formed, by their geographical position, the four extremities of a cross Later, Saint Hidul- phus. Bishop of Treves (d 707), erected between them at the intersection of the two arms of the cross, the monastery of Moyenmoutier. Villigod and