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 SAINT THOMAS

382

SAINT THOMAS

After a five years' course in this college, including Latin, Greek, English, mathematics, natural history, botany, mineralog}', physics, chemistry-, and phi- losophy, the successful student receives the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. The university has the right of con- ferring the doctorate in theology-, philosophy, in civil and canon law, medicine, pharmacy, literature, and science. The departments of the university are all within the "walled citv". The university attained its great- est prosperity in 1897, just at the commencement of the Spanish-American war. In that year the number of students enrolled in the various courses was as

Umvkrsity of St. Thumbs, M\nii.\ Church of .San Domingo on the Right

follows: divinity, 15; canon law, 5; civil law, 572; medicine, 361; pharmacy, 90; philosophy and liter- ature, 51; sciences, 14; that year, however, owing to the revolution, the numbers very notably decreased until within the last two years, when there was a marked increase in attendance, the schools of medi- cine and pharmacy being particularly well attended. In connexion with the university there is an excellent museum of natural history. The exhibits of this mu.seum have been awarded special premiums at the expositions of Paris, Madrid, the Philippine Islands, Hanoi in Cochinchina, and St. Louis. The museum contains excellent material for the study of anatomy, anthropology, diplogenesy, Philippine eth- nolog)', zoolog>', botany, mineralogy, and numis- matics. The zoological specimens and their varieties number over 10,0(X). The,se have been carefully catalogued in a notable work, "Catdlogo sistemdtico de toda la fauna de Filipinas", arranged by the Reverend Casto de Elera, O.P., who for many years held the chair of natural history in the university. The clas.s(« of medicine are held in St. Joseph's CVjllege and in the San Juan de Dios hospital, both found(!d in the seventeenth century. The medical de- partment has well-equipped laboratories. The courses of pharmacy are given in St. Joseph's College. The library contains more than 2.'),0(X) volumes. The university is under the direction of a corporation formed by Dominicans; the rector is always a mem- ber of that order, though sf-cular professors are ap- pointed for the chairs of civil law, medicine, and phanna^;y. The farrulty numbers 00 professors and 220 assistant tf-achers and masters in the various departments of the university.

John J. Thompkins.

Saint Thomas of Guiana (Guayana), Diocese OF (de Guayana), suffragan of Caracas, erected by Pius VI on 19 Dec, 1791, comprises the former .state of Bermudez, districts of Nueva Esparta and Guayana, and territories of Amazonas, Caura, Col6n, Orinoco, and Yuruary, in the south and east of Venezuela. The first bishop was Mgr. Francisco de Ybarra, born at Guacata, Venezuela; his successors were: (1) Jose An- tonio Mohedano (ISOO), born in the Diocese of To- ledo; (2) Mgr. Jose de Silva y Olave (15 March, 1815). After the troubles caused by the wars of independence Leo XII named (3) Mgr. Mariano Talavero, of Santa F6, vicar Apostolic and titular Bishop of Tricala. Gregory XII restored the episcopate, appointing (4) Mgr. Antonio Fortique (12 July, 1841); (5) Jose Eman- uel Arroyo (1856) ; and (6) Mgr. Antonio Maria Durdn (25 Sept., 1891), the present bishop. The diocese con- tains over 400,000 Catholics, and a few alien Jews and Protestants; 60 parishes (20 filial); 36 priests; 50 churches and chapels. The Carib Indians occupying Eastern Venezuela were civilized and Christianized by the early Spani.sh Franciscan missionaries. The episcopal city, Ciudad Bolivar (population 12,000) was established in 1764 by two Jesuits under the gov- ernorship of Joaquin de Mendoza, on the right bank of the Orinoco, and called San Tomds de la Nueva Guaj^ana; but owing to a narrowing of the river was commonly known as Angostura. It played an im- portant part in the national history, and Sim6n Boli- var was elected president there by the Congress of February, 1819; in his honour the city has been re- named Ciudad Bolivar.

MozANS, Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena (New York, 1910).

A. A. MacErlean.

Saint Thomas of Mylapur (Sancti Thom^ de Meliapor), Diocese of, suffragan to the primatial See of Goa in the East Indies; it derives its name from the site of its cathedral, in which the Apostle St. Thomas was interred on his martyrdom, and the Tamil word Mailapur (i. e. the town of peacocks), which the Greeks rendered as Maliarpha, the Portu- guese Meliapor, and the English Mylapore.

Early History. — The local Indian tradition, largely corroborated by collateral evidence, is that the Apos- tle St. Thomas, after preaching on the west coast of India, passed on to the ea.st coast and fixed his see at Mylapur, which was then a flourishing city. The number of converts he made having aroused the hos- tility of the heathen priests, he fled from their anger to the summit of what is now known as St. Thomas's Mount (situated in a direct line four miles to the south-west of Mylapur). Thither he was followed by his persecutors, who transfixed him with a lance as he prayed kneeling on a stone, a. d. 68. From the facts that the Roman Breviary declares St. Thomas to have "crowned the glory of his Apostleship with mar- tyrdom at Calamina" and that no traces of any Cala- mina exi.st, various theories — some of them probably absurd — have been put forward to identify Calamina with Mylapur, or with St. Thomas's Mount. The writer of this article once suggested that Calamina might be a modification of Cholamandalam (i. e. the kingdom of the Cholas, as the surrounding country was in the beginning of the Christian era). On ma- turcr reflection lu; has found it far more reasonable to believe lliat Calamina was an ancient town at the foot of the hill at St. Thomas's Mount, that has wholly dis- appeared, as many more recent historic Indian cities have disappeared, built as they were of mud, except for their ternj)les and palaces which were of ex- quisitely wrought stone. This much is certain: till Europeans settled in the pla(e there was no Indian name even for the, hill. TJiis is shown by the present Indian name, Faranghi Malai (i. e. the hill of the Franks), used to denote both the hill and the town