Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/435

 SAINT-VALLIER

387

SAINT-VALLIER

disposed to accommodate itself to the changed condi- tions of the times. The concordat was preceded by negotiations with England, to make sure that the British Government would not object to the continu- ance of the Portuguese royal patronage in its Eastern possessions. Accordingly, the Primacy of the East of the archbishops of Goa was reaffirmed, while in addi- tion they were accorded the honorary title of Patri- archs of the East Indies and the substantial privilege of presiding at the plenary councils of the East Indies, which were ordinarily to assemble at Goa, while the special relations existing between the Archdiocese of Goa and its suffragan dioceses were to be continued. But the Hmits of the original Portuguese dioceses were contracted, the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur being assigned two distinct pieces of territory on the Coromandel Coast, separated from each other by a distance of some 150 miles. The first is a triangle of an area of some 800 square miles, in the northern angle of which Saint Thomas is situated; the other is roughly the ancient Kingdom of Tanjore. In addi- tion, both by the concordat and certain appendixes thereto, the diocese was given five churches in the Archdiocese of Madras — the old vicariates Apostohc having been converted into dioceses as a sequel to the concordat by the Constitution "Humana? salutis" of 1886, of Leo XIII — three churches in the Archdiocese of Calcutta (Western Bengal), five churches in the Diocese of Dacca (Eastern Bengal), and twenty-four churches in the Diocese of Trichinopoly (which origin- ally belonged to the Diocese of Cochin), with their congregations.

The first bishop appointed to Saint Thomas of My- lapur on the conclusion of the new concordat was the princely Dom Henrique Jose Reed da Silva, who was at the time coadjutor to the Archbishop of Goa, and who took possession of his sec in 1S86. He was the first to sign himself for the sake of brevity. Bishop of Mylapur, a practice which his successors have adopted. Hence the diocese is at the present lime better known in India as the Diocese of Mylapur. His was the arduous task of gathering the broken shreds of the old historic diocese, putting them together, and ren- dering it once again the thing of beauty it was. Hia first care was to reform the diocesan seminar^', and in order to have an efficient body of European priests with their heart in their work, lie brought out a num- ber of young boys from Pcjrtugal and gave them a collegiate course in English, in the college to which he had raised the existing high-school, previous to their entering upon their (•cclcsiuslical course of studies. His successors are reaping th(> hen(>fit of his policy. He opened a convent of European nuns at Saint Thomas, and another of Indian nuns in Mylapur, which have since thrown out branches into various parts of the diocese. He invited English-speaking priests to join his diocese (a call to which the present writer responded) and established the "Catholic Reg- ister", a weekly newspaper. His courtly manners and noble bearing made him a favourite in society. Soon the people felt it an honour to be able to point to him as their bishop. He pulled down the old cathe- dral, the chapel over the grave of St. Thomas, and the old Augustinian prior>', that had nothing antique to commend them, and built the present magnificent cathedral in the centre of which, between the nave and chancel, hes the grave of St. Thomas. Despite the good he was accomphshing, he incurred the ill-will of certain parties connected with the churches situated in other dioceses, and when he found the accusations brought against him accepted without demur in Europe, he resigned and retired to Portugal, as titular Bishop of Trajanopolis.

He was succeeded by Dom Antonio Jos6 de Souza Barroso, who, within a few months of his arrival at Saint Thomas, was promoted to the See of Oporto. Bishop Barroso was succeeded by the present bishop,

Dom Theotonio Manuel Ribeiro Vieira dc Castro, who was presented on 12 June, 1899, and confirmed by Leo XIII ten days later. He was consecrated at Oporto on 15 August, 1899, and reached Saint Thomas on 23 December. The tercentenary of the creation of the diocese occurred in January, 1906, in which almost all of the archbishops and bishops of the vast tract that constituted the original Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapur took part in person in addi- tion to the delegate ApostoUc and other prelates, num- bering fifteen bishops in all. It is instructive to note, that with the single exception of the Archdiocese of Madras, all of the dioceses into which the original Dio- cese of Saint Thomas of Mylapiu- is divided are served by non-Briti.sh clergy, save for the Indian and few Indo-European priests, where there are any. But even in the Archdiocese of Madras, though it is served by the British Missionary Society of St. Joseph, the majority of the priests and the coadjutor bishop are from the Continent. Dacca is served by the Fathers of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America.

According to the latest available statistics, there are in the diocese some 72,000 Catholics, 20 European and 51 Indian priests, 1 seminary. For boys there are: 2 high schools at Saint Thomas, one being for Indo-Europeans, the other for Indian Christians; 3 ori)hanages, one for Indo-Europeans at Saint Thomas, another for Indian Christians at Tanjore, managed by the Salesians, and the third at Calcutta for Indian Christians. For girls: 2 convents of the Franciscan Missionary Nuns of Mary, at Saint Thomas and at St. Thomas's Mount, which maintain schools and orphanages attached to them both for Indo-Europeans and Indians, the latter of whom are mainly looked after by Indian Sisters of the Third Or- der of St. Francis; 6 convents of Indian nuns of the diocesan Institute of Our Lady of Help, in populous centres, with schools and boarding establishments for Indian caste girls; there are also 8 middle-schools and 57 primary schools. The conversions for the year end- ing :«) September, 1907 totalled about 200, of which 135 were from heathenism, 63 from Protestantism, and 8 from Mohammedanism. The catechumens under in- struction at the same time numbered 141. Thus is Portugal in the beginning of the twentieth century continuing the work inaugurated on the Coromandel Coast in the beginning of the sixteenth, in the days when the Vasco de Gamas, Cabrals, and de Albuquer- ques were not the mere shadowy heroes of the past, but walked the earth in living flesh and did their deeds of daring.

James Doyle.

Saint- Vallier, Jean-Baptiste de, second Bishop of Quebec, b. at Grenoble, France, 14 Nov., 1653; d. at Quebec, Canada, 26 Dec, 1727; son of Jean de La Croix de Chevrieres, and Marie de Sayne. He was educated at the local seminary and took the degree of Doctor of Theology at the Sorbonne at the age of nineteen. While acting as almoner to Louis XIV his regularity and piety not only preserved him from the dangers of the Court, but maintained and redeemed others, who were edified by his charity and zeal to- ward the poor and infirm. He accompanied the king in a campaign to Flanders and devotedly attended the wounded and dying. Through humility he succes- sively refused the Sees of Tours and Marseilles, prefer- ring a field of missionary' labour and hardship. He was chosen to replace Bishop Laval on his resignation (1684), and pending the reception of his Bulls, ho k^ft for Canada as vicar-general (1685). At first his bear- ing towards the seminary and the other institutions showed a disposition to continue his predecessor's policy. His zeal moved him to visit every parish be- tween Quebec and Montreal, and even distant Acadia. Under the title "Etat present de I'Eglise ct de la