Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/461

 SYRIA

405

SYRIA

souls, 1 church, and 3 priests; (6) Diocese of Diarbe- kir, with 1000 souls, 3 parishes, 3 churches, and 7 priests. (7) Diocese of Djezire, with 2000 souls, 7 churches, 10 priests, and 6 schools, residence Dje- zire; (8) Diocese of Mardin, with 5000 souls, 7 sta- tions, 9 churches, 25 priests, and 7 schools; (9) Dio- cese of Mosul, with 10,000 souls, 8 parishes, 12 churches, and 25 priests, residence Mosul. The liturgical language of this Church is Syriac.

Catholics nf the Latin Rite. — The Catholics of the Latin Rite in Syria are not very numerous, and are under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Delegate of S3Tia, whose residence is at Beirut (formerly at Aleppo). They number about 7000, scattered all over the large towns of SjTia, and are either of Italian or French descent, having settled in Syria mainly for commercial or educational purposes. The so- called Latin Patriarchate of Antioch owes its origin to the times of the Crusades of the eleventh, twelfth, andthirteenth centuries, in connexion with the estab- lishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, both of which are nowadays simply titular, without any jurisdiction, and their titulars reside in Rome. The Latin Patriarch of Antioch has under his purely titular jurisdiction the following titular archbish- oprics: Apamea, Adana, Tarsus, Anazarbe, Seleucia, Irenopohs, Cjt, Hierapolis, Edessa, Amida, Xisibis, Emesa, Heliopolis, Palmyra, Damascus, Philadel- phia, Bostra, Almire, Derbe, Epiphania, Cabala, and Rosea. For Armenians (Cathohc and Schismatic) see Armenia; for Chaldeans (Catholic) see Ch.\ldean Christiaxs. The last group of Christians in SjTia, and, perhaps the most important one, consists of the Maronites of Mt. Lebanon. They form by far the largest Christian community of SjTia, and are all in union with the Catholic Church. (See Maronites.)

The latest approximate statistics of the population and various denominations in Svria are — total pop- ulation, 3.226,160; Mohammedans, 2,209-4.50; Cath- olic Christians, 555,9-19; non-Cathohc Christians, 435,.3S9; NusairijTeh, about 150,000; Ismailivveh, about 120,000; Druzes, about 70,000; Jews, 65,246.

CATHOLIC Missions in Syria. — The beginnings of Cathohc missions in SjTia may be appropriately traced back to the age of the Crusaders and the establishment of the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch in 1100, and that of the Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo in 1762. The first Latin Patriarch of Antioch was appointed either in 1100 (according to Le Quien) or 1098 (according to ]Mas Latrie) bj' Pope Urban IL The first ajjpointee was Bernard, Bishop of Artesia, near Antioch. He died in 1132 and was suc- ceeded by Raoul, from Dumfront in Normandy, who, owing to flagrant acts of impertinence and insub- ordination to the Holy See, was forced to resign in 1142. He was succeeded by Aimeric or Amaury, of Limoges, who, having incurred the displeasure of Renaud de Chatillon, Prince of Antioch, was persecuted, tortured, and finally compelled to flee to Jerusalem. In 1160, however, he was restored to his see by Baudouin II, Prince of Aleppo. Soon, however, Bohemond III, Prince of Antioch, drove Amaury out of his .see and offered it instead, in 1161, to the Greek Patriarch, Athanasius. On the death of the latter in 1170, caused by a terrific earthquake, in which most of the Greek clergj- also lost their lives, the Greeks lost their influence and jHtwer with the people. In 1196 Amaury himself died and was suc- ceeded by Pierre d'Angouleme, Bishop of Tripoli. In 1204 Pietro of Capua, known as Pietro d'.^malfi, was chosen Patriarch of Antioch. Bohemond IV, however, soon began to intrigue in order to replace him with the Greek Patriarch, Simeon III; but he was excommunicated by the patriarch and by the pope himself. Innocent III, which cau.sed the whole Latin clergj' to rebel against the king. Pietro d'Amalfi, nevertheless, was imprisoned by Bohemond and died

in 1208, and was succeeded by the Latin Bishop of Jerusalem, Pietro di Capua, nephew of the deceased patriarch. Bohemond IV, however, refused to acknowledge him. In the meanwhile, after many quarrels and vicissitudes, King Bohemond and the Latin clergy agreed to the election of Rainier, in 1219, as Patriarch of Antioch, after having succeeded in inducing the pope to create the Greek occupant of the see, the Patriarch Peter, a cardinal. Rainier died in 1226 and was succeeded in 1228 by Albert Rezato, who was present at the Council of Lyons in 1245 and who died a short time afterwards.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries sev- eral Latin patriarchs occupied the See of Antioch, but were constantly haras.sed and molested by the native Greek clergj' and by the Frankish princes themselves, who for political purposes were ever ready to sacri- fice religious interests in order to secure the good will of the native Greek Syrians. In the year 134S, how- ever, the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch came to an end, as far as effective jurisdiction was concerned, although it continued to exist till our own times simply as a titular dignity. The present Latin Patriarch of Antioch resides in Rome. In the thir- teenth centurj', however, when it was at its height, the Latin Patriarchate of Antioch had under its jurisdiction the Latin sees of Laodicea, Gabala, Antaradus or Torto.sa, Tripoli, Byblos, Seleucia, Tarsus, Corycos, Mamistra, Edessa, Apamea, Ba- lanea, Artesia, Albaria, Larissa, Mariames, Hierapolis, Cyr, Nicosia, Paphos, Famagusta, and Limassol (see Le Quien, "Oriens Christianus", III, 1165-1232). During these two centuries, the presence of so many Catholic bishops, clergy, and lay people of the Latin Rite in Palestine and Syria was productive of good Catholic missionary results, as, owing pre- cisely to the contact of the Latins with the various Oriental Schismatic Churches of the Near Ea.st, a large number of Greeks, Nestorians, Jacobite Syrians and Monophysite Armenians, not seldom led by their own bishops and clergy, embraced the Catholic Faith.

The second centre of Catholic propaganda in Syria was the Latin Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo. This Vicariate was first established in 1762, extending its jurisdiction and its beneficial mis.sionary influence over all SjTia, Cyprus, Egj-pt, and Arabia, allof which provinces were then, by a special decree of the Con- gregation of the Propaganda, detached from the Vicariate Apostolic of Constantinople. Its first oc- cupant was the Lazarist Ba.ssu. After his death, and, in fact, several decades later, in 1817, he was suc- ceeded by Mgr. Gandolfi, of the Congregation of the Mission, who was replaced in 1827 bv Mgr. Losanna, titular BLshop of Abydos. From 1827 down to 1896, owing to the special rights and privileges enjoyed by the Franciscans as the custodians of the Holy Land, all the Latin Vicars Apostolic of .Aleppo were selected from the Franciscan order as follows: A. Fazio (1836- 38); Father Fillardell (1839-.52) who died a martjT in Constantinople in 18.52; P. Brunoni (1853); S. Milani (1874-76); L. Piavi in 1877, who in 1889 was made Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; and G. Bonfigli in 1890, who in 1896 was transferred to the Latin Vicariate Apostolic of Egypt. In the meanwhile the residence was transferred from Aleppo to Beirut, which was gradually becoming the most influential and progressive town of the Near East. In 1S96 a French Dominican, Mgr Charles Duval, for nearly thirtj' years missionary at Mosul, succeeded Bonfigli. Duval died in 1904 and was succeeded on January 17 of the following year (1905) by Mgr. Frediano Gian- nini, titular Archbishop of Serra.

During the course of the nineteenth century the Vicariate Apostolic of SjTia suffered several losses. In 1838 F>gypt and Arabia were taken away; and in 1848 Jerus.alem was elevated to the rank of Latin patriarchate with jurisdiction over Palestine, Southern