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SAN XAVIER

other missioners arrived in Hispaniola to replace a dis- contented element that occasioned no small annoy- ance to the great discoverer, and to laj- the solid foun- dation of the Faith among the native Indians.

The archdiocese contains (500,000 Cathohcs; 66 secular and 12 regular priests; 32 Sisters of Charity; 68 churches; 103 chapels; 1 seminary; 257 schools. The present archbishop, Mgr. Adolfo Xouel, was born at Santo Domingo, 12 December, 1S62; elected titular Archbishop of Methymna, S October, 1904; conse- crated at Rome eight days later as coadjutor to Arch- bishop de Merino of Santo Domingo, whom he suc- ceeded in August, 1906.

Boletin eclesidstico de la arquididcesis de Santo Domingo; Bull PonHfei Romanus in ATchito de Simancas; Brac, La colonizacion de Puerto Rico (San Juan, 1907); Documents in episcopal archives, San Juan, Porto Rico.

W. A. Jones. Santorin. See Thera, Diocese of.

Santos, JoAO dos, Dominican missionary in India and Africa, b. at Evora, Portugal; d. at Goa in 1622. His book "Ethiopia Oriental" is the best description of the Portuguese occupation of Africa at the end of the sixteenth century, when Portugal was at the zenith of her power there. His account of the man- ners and customs of the Bantu tribes at that date is most valuable; he was a keen observer, and generally a sober narrator of things that he saw. This work is now a Portuguese classic. On 13 August, 1586, four months after leaving Lisbon, dos Santos arrived in Mozambique. He was at once sent to Sofala, where he remained four years with Father Joao Madeu-a. Between them they baptized some 1694 natives and had built three chapels when they were ordered back to Mozambique. After a journey of great hardships they were forced to remain on the Zambesi River, dos Santos staying at Tete for eight months. From registers found there he dis- covered that the Dominicans had baptized about 20,000 natives before the year 1.591 at Tete alone. From Mozambique he was sent to the small island of Querimba, where he remained for two years. The registers here gave the information that 16,000 natives had been baptized before the year 1593. Next he was appointed commissary of the Bulla da Cruzada at Sofala, where he stayed more than a year. His labours in Africa ended on 22 August, 1.597, when he left Mozambique for India. With the exception of eleven j'ears spent in Europe (1606-17) he lived the rest of his life in India.

Ethiopia Oriental (Lisbon, 1891); Theal, Tfie Portuguese irt South Africa (Cape Town, 1896).

Sidney R. Welch.

San Xavier del Bac, Mission of, one of the eight mi.s.sions founded by the Spanish Padres between 1687 and 1720 in the Pimeria Alta, within the present lim- its of the State of Arizona, viz. Guevavi, San Xavier del Bac (of the water), Tumacacuri (San .Jos6, which has been reserved by Act of Congress as a national monument), Tubac (Santa Gertrudis), Sonoitag (San Miguel), Arivaca, Santa Ana, and Calabasas (San Cayetano). Of these only Tumacacuri and San Xavier del Bac are extant : the former, situated forty- five miles south of Tucson, is in a ruinous condition ; the hitter, nine miles south of Tucson, in the fertile Santa Cruz valley and close to the Papago village, has re- mained in a remarkable state of preservation and is visited annually by a great number of pilgrims, tour- ists and students of art and history. Founded in 1699 by the Jesuit missionary Eusebius Kino (Kiihne), a native of the Austrian Tyrol who resigned the chair of mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt to evan- geUze the aborigines of the New World, the Church of San Xavier del Jiac was completed by the Spanish Franciscans at a later date, with the exception of one of the towers, which remained unfinished. It is built of Btone and brick, with"a mortar the proceed of which

is now lost and which has retained to this day the con- sistency of cement. Its inside dimensions are 105 feet by 70 in the transept and 27 in the nave. It has the form of the Latin cross. Experts have been at vari- ance regarding the style of architecture at San Xa- vier, some pronouncing it Moorish, others Byzantine, others again describing it as a mixture of both. It seems now established that it may not be called Moor- ish, as it has nothing in common with the Moorish architecture as exemplified in the Orient and South- ern Spain, although it bears traces of the influence exercised by Moorish art over the Renaissance in Spain. The proper denomination should be the Spanish Mission style, viz. Spanish Renaissance as modified by local conditions in the Spanish colonies of the New World.

Directly in front of the church is an atrium, en- closed by a fence wall, where the Indians used to hold their meetings. The facade, profusely adorned with arabesques of varied colours and bearing the coat- of-arms of St. Francis, is flanked by two towers 80

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feet high. From the top, made accessible by easy winding stairs cut in the thickness of the walls, a comprehensive view may be obtained over the ver- dant Santa Cruz valley, the distant city of Tucson and the circle of lofty, pinnacled mountains.

The interior is frescoed throughout, and contains a great number of artistic statues made of wood. The reredos of the main altar and of the side chapels are elaborately decorated in bas-relief with scroll work covered with gold leaf, and are .supported by columns of unique designs. Above the centre of the transept a cupola ri.ses to a height of 55 feet. Six minor domes divide the remaining space. Two figures of lions carved in wood guard the access to the sanctuary. The terraced rof)f is surrounded by a balustrade in masonry, each baluster tapering into a cement finial and supporting on either side a lion's head, reminiscent of th(^ escutcheon of Castile and Leon. To the west of the church is an open cortile, the ancient burying ground, with fourteen pillars in the wall bearing niches for the Stations of the Cross worked in high-relief. At the west end of the cortile stands a domed chapel with a belfry, used formerly a.s a mortuary chapel, since dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.

Adjacent to the church are gathered the mission