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 SAINT SYLVESTER

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SAINT THOMAS

richly endowed, i)articularly by Charlemagne, who bestowed on it Orbitello and eleven other towns, with a considerable territory, over which its abbot exercises ordinary jurisdiction {abbatia nullius).

Towards the middle of the seventh century the persecutions inflicted on the Eastern monks by the Monothelites obliged many of them to seek shelter in Rome, and to them this abbey was committed as a refuge. These continued in possession until the tenth century, when it was given to the Cluniacs. In 1140 Pope Innocent II withdrew the abbey from them, and entrusted it to St. Bernard, who sent there a colony from Clairvaux, with Peter Bernard of Paganelli as their abbot, who five years later be- came Pope Eugene III.

At the time Innocent granted the monastery to the Cistercians, he had the church repaired and the monastic quarters rebuilt according to tlie usages of the order. Of the fourteen regular abbots who governed the abbey, several, besides Blessed Eugene III, became cardinals, legates, or bishops. Pope Honorius III, in 1221, again restored the Church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius and personally con- secrated it, seven cardinals at the same time con- secrating the seven altars therein. Cardinal Branda (1419) was the first commendatory abbot, and after him this office was often filled by a cardinal. Popes Clement VII and VIII as cardinals held this position. Leo X, in 1519, authorized the religious to elect their own regular superior, a claustral prior independent of the commendatory abbot, who from this time for- ward was always to be a cardinal. From 162o, when the abbey was affiliated to the Cistercian Con- gregation of St. Bernard in Tuscany, until its sup- pression at the Napoleonic invasion (1S12) the local superior was a regular abbot, but without prejudice to the commendatory abbot. The best known of this series of regular abbots was the second, Dom Ferdinand Ughelli, who was one of the foremost literary men of his age, the author of "Italia Sacra" and numerous other works.

From 1812 the sanctuaries were deserted, until Leo XII (1826) removed them from the nominal care of the Cistercians, and transferred them to the P'riars Minor of the Strict Observance. The purpose of the pontiff, however, was not accompHshed; the surround- ings were so unhealthful that no community could live there. In 18G7 Pius IX appointed his cousin. Cardinal Milesi-Ferretti, Commendatory Abbot of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius, who endca\-ur(>d to restore, n(it only the material desolation that reigned in the neghn'ted sanctuaries, but also to provide that they be suitably served by ministers of God. To further this end he obtained that their care be again committed to the Cistercians. A community was sent there in 1868 from La Grande Trappe to institute the regular life and to try to render more healtliful the lands, which from long neglect had been called the tomba (graveyard) of the Roman Campagna. Assisted by Pius IX, so long as he held the tem- poral sovereignty, and by other friends, especially Mgr de Merode, they were able to supply their ordinary needs. The usurpation of 1870 deprived Pius IX of the power to aid them, and later, when the Italian Government confiscated religious properties, they suffered with the others. They remained at Three Fountains, at first renting and later (1886) definitively purchasing it from the Government, with an additional tract of 1234 acres. They inaugurated modern methods for the elimination of the malarial conditions that had been such an obstacle to health in the past, especially by planting a large number of eucalyptus and other trees, an experiment insisted upon by the Government in the contract of sale. The trial proved a success, so that the vicinity is now nearly as healthful as Rome itself. The present com- mendatory abbot is Cardinal Oreglia di S. Stephano,

dean of the Sacred College; and the Administrator is the Most Reverend Dom Augustine Marre, Abbot- General of the Reformed Cistercians.

Ughelli, Italia Sacra (Venice, 1717-21); Bacceti, 5ep<imtan/E HistoricE libri septem (Rome, 1724); Bleser, Guid^ du voyageur catholique d Rome (Louvain, 1881); Monbet, L'Abbaie des Trois Fontaines situee aux Eaux Salviennes (Lvon, 1869) ; Manrique Annates Cist. (Lyon, 1642); Le Nain,' Essai sur I'histoire de VOrdre de Ctteaux (Paris, 1696) ; Janauschek, Originum Cisler- ctensium, I (Vienna, 1878) ; Obrecht, The Trappists of the Three Fountains in Messenger of the Sacred Heart (New York, 1894); Lisi, Trappa delle Tre Fontane (Rome, 1883) ; Gaume, Lcs Trois Rome (Paris, 1842); Archives of the Abbey of Tre Fontane.

Edmond M. Obrecht.

Saint Sylvester, Order of, is neither monastic nor military but a purely honorary title created by Gregory XVI, 31 Oct., 1841. The idea of placing this title, borrowed from the Middle Ages, under the patronage of a pope of the fourth century is explained by the existence of a fabulous order of Constantine the Great claiming the approval of his contemporary, Sylvester I, which enjoyed a usurped authority at Rome from the seventeenth century. To end this abuse, Gregory XVI created an authentic title of Knightsof St. Sylvester, to be conferred in recognition of some service rendered to the Church, the order being limit •(! to 150 commanders and 300 Roman knights, besides foreigners of whom the number is unlimited. The members have no privileges beyond that of wearing a decoration which consists of a gold enam- elled Maltese cross with the image of St. Sylvester on one side and on the other the inscription': "1841 Gregorius XVI restituit."

Ch. Moeller.

Saint Thomas, Diocese of (Sancti Thom^ in Insula), comprising the Islands of Sao Thome and Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, was erected on 23 November, 1584, as suffragan of Lisbon; in 1676 it was made subject to the Metropolitan of San Salvador, Brazil, and in 1844 to Lisbon once more. The last bishop, Bartolomeo de Martyribus, a Carmelite of Sandomir, was preconized on 8 March, 1816, and died in 1847. The see then remained vacant. Since 1865 it has been ruled as a vicariate. Sao Thom6, lying one hundred and fifty miles off the African main- land at 0° 28' N. lat. and 6° 42" E. long., has an area of three hundred and fifty-eight square miles and a population of 37,776 inli.ihitants (in 1900). It is very fertile, and is noted for its cocoa. The capital, Sao Thome, situated on the Bay of Santa Anna, contains 6000 inhabitants. The island, when dis- covered on 21 December, 1470, by Joiio de Santarem, w:us uninhabited; in 1485 Joao de Paiva and in 1493 Pereira attempted to colonize it. Most of the pres- ent inhabitants are of African slave origin. About 1544 a ship carrying a cargo of Angolares was wrecked at Sete Pedras and 3000 of their descendants still live in the south-west. Th(^ Capuchins arrived in 1659 and established a dc^finite mission in 1688. Principe, lying ninety miles north-east of Sao Thom6 and discovered in 1471, had an area of 42 square miles and a population of 4327. Its chief town is Sao Antonio. The diocese contains 8 parishes and 22,000 Catholics. Owing to the development of the (ocoa trade in recent years the population, recruited chiefly from Africa, is estimated to have increased by over 20,000 since the last official census (1910).

Negrkiros, Ila de San Thome (Paris, 1901).

A. A. MacErlean.

Saint Thomas (Santo Tomas), University of, Manila, founded in 1619 by the Dominican Miguel de Benavides, Archbishop of Manila. In 1645 Innocent X granted it the title of pontifical uni\'er- sity, and in the same year it received the title of royal university from Philip IV of Spain. Attached to the university is the College of San Juan de Letran.