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 SAINT THOMAS

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SAINT THOMAS

as Dom Pedro preferred staying in Brazil, he ceded his right to Dona Maria da Gloria, his younger daughter, appointing his brother, Dom Miguel, as regent till she should grow up, when the regent was to marry her and thus heal the rupture between the loyalists and the ad- herents of Dom Miguel. The adherents of Dom Miguel, however, proclaimed him king. Dom Pedro came over to Portugal in 1S26 to assert his daughter's rights, and finally defeated his brother in 1834. Dom Miguel was perpetually banished and those who sided with him were punished, amongst those to suffer be- ing the religious orders, whose houses were suppressed and properties confiscated.

In consequence of this last measure mainly, diplo- matic relations between the Holy See and Portugal were broken off. The Sacred Congregation de Propa- ganda Fide deemed the moment opportune to extend the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic of Madras to Saint Thomas of Mylapur and its missions southwards to the River Palar (those south of the Palar being as- signed to the Vicar Apostolic of Pondicherry), to de- clare Burma to be an independent vicariate, and to create in the northern part of the diocese (Bengal and the adjoining countries) an independent vicariate Apostohc under Dr. St. Leger, with a staff of British priests. From a certain point of view this action was unfortunate, as under the circumstances it caused the loyalist Portuguese to regard these measures as re- taliatory and not as prompted by a desire for the spiritual welfare of the regions concerned. And, in- deed, there was nothing up to this to show that Portu- gal had shirked her responsibilities in regard to the diocese, or that the successive ordinaries of the diocese had been found wanting, beyond the mere accusation of those missionaries Apostolic who were sent into their territories and, failing to recognize their author- ity, had received scant courtesy. Howbeit, when called upon by the Vicar Apostolic of Madras to sur- render his churches and submit to him, the adminis- trator replied that he would gladly do so when in- structed by the authority that placed him there. The vicar Apostolic then called upon the priests and the subjects of the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur to submit to him, but they all replied in much the same terms. The same thing happened in the parts of the diocese between the Rivers Palar and Cauverj^ and in Bengal; whereupon the vicar Apostolic de- clared the administrator, priests, and people of the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur schismatics, and from the fact that a large number of the priests in the diocese were from Goa, defined their action as the "Goan schism". However, the Holy See seems not to have taken much notice of the "schism ", and diplo- matic relations were resumed with Portugal in 1841. Then followed a series of acts unworthy of the Church, when both sides strove to capture or recapture churches that they claimed; when church was built against church, altar rai.sed against altar, and violence and pfilice-courts were a common resort.

Gn 14 March, 18.30, Dom Antonio Tristao Vaz Tei- xeira was presented by the Crown of Portugal to the Holy Swi as Bishop of Saint Thomas of Mylapur, and left Lisbon for India a month later. As the Holy See had in the meantime refused to confirm the presenta- tion, the Vicar Capitular of Goa appointed him ad- ministrator of the diocese in plaf;e of Fre. Ave Maria, who had died on 5 August of the same year. Dom Antonio uKsumed charge on 15 Gctober following, and dieobo, an Indian from Goa (as were all the administrators of Ihe diocese up to 1886), who was aj)poin1ed on 3 Octobf^r, 1852.

Gn the n^storation of the Society of Jesus by Pius VII the French .IcHuits returned to the parts of the Diocesf; of Covh'm, which their Portuguese brethren ha^l evangelized, though opposed by the authorities of that diocese; and in 1846, the Congregation de Propa-

ganda Fide erected their missions into a vicariate Apos- tohc. In 1850 the Salesians of Annecy were sent out to take charge of the country between the Rivers Godavery and Mahanuddy, which was at the same time created a vicariate Apostolic. In the same year, the country between the Chittagong and Kabudak River was created a vicariate Apostolic, and com- mitted to the care of the Fathers of the Holy Cross; while at about the same time the Fathers of Alissions ^trangeres of Paris replaced the Italian Barnabites in Burma. Thus the Diocese of Mylapur was divided up between six vicariates: Madura, Pondicherrj', Madras, Vizagapatam, Western Bengal, and Eastern Bengal and Burma.

In 1857 a concordat was entered into between the Holy See and Portugal, pending the execution of which both the vicars Apostolic and the authorities of the diocese were to enjoj* pacific possession of the places they actually held. But the Crown of Portu- gal undertook manifestly too great a burden, to wit, to provide for the spiritual needs of the whole of India, and consequently the concordat remained a dead let- ter. In 1854 the Royal Missionary College of Bom- jardim at Sernache, Portugal, was founded for the training of secular priests for the Portuguese missions bej'ond the seas. Meanwhile the missions of the dio- cese had been greatly weakened by secessions to the vicars Apostolic. The missions were situated in Brit- ish territory and as beyond the clergy there were scarcely any Portuguese subjects to be found through- out the diocese there was no particular inducement for the people to cling to the see.

In Madras itself, the Irish vicars Apostolic and mis- sionaries had been educated at Maynooth College, and almost all of them were doctors of divinity. They were socially and intellectually on an equality with the best British talent. Protestants as well as Catho- hcs crowded to hear their sermons in churches and their lectures on scientific matters. When Dr. O'Con- nor first came out, he brought letters of introduction to the governor and was a guest at Government House. On the first occasion when he drove to St. Mary's of the Angels, the quasi-cathedral of his vicariate, wearing a co(!ked hat and buckled shoes, long coat and knee-breeches, the old ladies protested that he could be no Catholic bishop but the emissarj' of the Govern- ment to make them all Protestants. These things lent prestige to the Cathohc name. One of the first things the Irish missionaries did was to open a semi- nary (to which a college was att ached) and ordain Indo- European priests, who proved of invaluable help to them. They also brought out the Irish Presentation nuns, whose schools arc yet the best in all Southern India. As a result, almost all the Catholic Indo-Eu- ropeans and Indians with pretensions to respecta- bility flocked to the vicars Apostolic, till in the end it was deemed oi)i)robrius to term one as belonging to the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur. Hence in the course of the negotiations prejiaratory to the fresh concordat of 188, th(> cardinal secretary of State was in a posit ion to show that out of 1,107,975 Catholics in British India, the Portuguese missions of the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur could actually claim only some 30,00 subjects, with a proportionate number of churches, one seminary from which a priest was occa- sionally ordained, one high school at Saint Thomas, two middle schools at Tuticorin and Msmapad, and a number of elementary schools; while any single vi- cariate Apostolic had a better efjuipment. But of these 30, souls which were all that were left to the PortugiKSf of the once flourishing diocese, it has truly, though scarcely laudably, been said that "they loved the Portuguese more than their own immortal souls".

Present Corulition. — Such was the state of affairs when in 1886 a fresh concordat was entered into be- twe<;n the Holy See and Portugal, which showed itself