Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/615

 THEATINES

557

THEATINES

ton, Mass., 1755; d. in Limerick, Ireland, 5 February, 1815. Hia familj' were among the early Puritan settlers of New England and all during his career he manifested much of their stern unbending character. Educated at Yale, he became a Congregationalist minister and as such served during the Revolutionary War as chaplain of a company organized for the de- fence of Boston and of which John Hancock was com- mander. After the war he wandered over Europe and was in Rome when the beggar-saint Benedict Joseph Labre died. An attempt he made to dispute some of the miracles wrought through Blessed Labre's intercession resulted in Thayer's conversion to the Faith, 25 May, 1783. His own account of this con- version, one of the first of prominent New England Protestants, was printed in 1787 and reissued in several editions in the United States, in London, and in Ireland. It was also translated into French and Spanish, and created a great controversial sensation at the time. Ambitious to convert his non-Catholic fellow-countrj'nien, he then took a theological course under the Sulpicians in Paris where he was ordained priest in 17S9. He returned to the United States the following year and was put in charge of the newly or- ganized Catholic congregation in Boston but soon failed as a pastor because of his erratic and conten- tious temper. He left Boston in 1799, and ministered for a very short time at .\lexandria, Virginia, whence he went to Kentucky as a missionary. Here he re- mained for four years, his zeal, however, not compen- sating for his lack of policy and his infirmity of tem- perament. His wandering inclinations carried him across the ocean again in 1803 and he finally settled down in Limerick, Ireland, where he died, locally es- teemed as a priest of edifying piety and ascetic life. The remainder of his small private fortune, with some gifts he had collected, he left by will to found aconvent in Boston. Inspired by this wish the three daughters of a merchant named James Ryan, with whom he lived in Limerick, emigrated to Boston (1819) and there founded the Ursuline Community, whose con- vent. Mount Benedict, near Bunker Hill, Charles- town, was burned and sacked by an anti-Catholic mob on the night of 11 August, 1834.

Shea, Life and Times of Most Rev. John Carroll (New York, 1888) ; FiNom, Bihliographia Cath. Americana (New York, 1872) ; Spalding, Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky (Louis- ville, 1857): Webb, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky (Louisville, 1884); Am. Calh. Hist. Researches (Philadelphia), passim: Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Retohuionary War (Boston, 1907): Memorial Hist, of Boston, III (Boston, 1880); U. S. Cath. Hist. Magazine, II (New York, 1888).

Thos. F. Meehan.

Tbeatines (Clerics Regular), a religious order of men, fotmded by Gaetano dei Conti di Tiene, Paolo Consiglieri, Bonifacio da Colle, and Giovanni Pietro Carafa, afterwards Pope Paul IV. Carafa was Bishop of Chieti (The.ate). a city of the Abruzzi in Southern Italy, from which the congregation .adopted its specific name to di.=!tinguish it from other congregations (Jesuits, Barnabites, Soraaschi, Caracciolini, etc.) modelled upon it. Gaetano consecrated his order to the Cross, which he adopted .as its emblem, and the foundation took place on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, 3 May, 1524. It was approved on 24 June, 1524, by Clement VII in the Brief "Exponi Nobis". On 14 Sept., feast of the Ex.altation of the Holy Cross, St. Gaetano and his companions m.ade solemn profession before the papal altar of St. Peter's, Rome, in the presence of Mgr. Giovanni Battista Bonziiino, Bishop of Caserta, special pap.al delegate. The chief object of the order was to recall the clergy to an edifying life and the laity to the practice of virtue. St. G.aetano .and his companions zealously endeavoured to combat the errors of Martin Luther, which, having gained a foothold in Switzerland, Ger- m.any, England, and France, then threatened Italy. They founded oratories (among them the celebrated

Divino Amore) and hospitals, devoted themselves to preaching the Gospel, and reforming lax morals. Through their good example clergy and laity were induced to better living.

Notwithstanding their severe rule of life and strict vow of poverty, the congregation rapidly developed, and soon numbered among its members illustrious names of the Itahan aristocracy (Vezzosi, "Illustri scrittori Teatini", Rome, 1780). They founded many beautiful churches, among them that of S. An- drea della Valle in Rome, a gift of Costanza Pic- colomini D'Ar.agona, Duchess of Amalfi. This church is the masterj^iece of Carlo Maderno, and con- tains several paintings by Domenichino. The Thea- tines were invited to Turin, Genoa, Venice, Milan, Padua, Piacenza, Parma, Modena, Florence, Naples, Palermo, Messina, Lecce, etc., by the authorities of these places. They also attained a great develop- ment in foreign countries. In France, through the efforts of Cardinal Mazarin, they built the Church of. St. Anne la Royale opposite the Louvre in 1644. In Spain, under Philip II, the Theatine Cardinal Paolo Burali d'Arezzo, afterwards beatified, filled various embassies at the command of the viceroy of Naples. In Portugal John IV, in 1648, gave the Theatines a splendid house and college for the education of noble youth. In England, under Henry VIII, Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph, entered the order of Theatines (see Goldwell, Thom.vs).

The Theatines were the first to foimd papal mis- sions in foreign lands, :ts in: Golconda, Ava, Peru, Mingrelia, the Islands of Siuula, Borneo, Sumatra, the history of which was written by the Theatine Bar- tolomeo Ferro (Missioni Teatine nelle Indie Orien- tali); Georgia, Arabia, Armenia, in which latter coun- try Father Galano, author of the history of the Armenian Chiu"ch, negotiated and concluded the recon- ciliation and union of that Church with the Roman Catholic; Persia and in many other places, as is shown by Theatine manuscripts dating from 1530 till the end of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth cen- tury the order began to decline, and in 1860, through the well-known suppression of religious orders, it was reduced to a shadow of its former greatness. In accordance with the spirit of its rule, it had never acquired possessions and is the only order which feels the consequences of the law of suppression.

Father Francesco di Paola Ragonesi, general of the order and the last siu'viving rejiresentative of its an- cient traditions, restored the Church of S. Andrea della Valle to its former splendour, by his care and zeal aided by the munificence of Comm. Filippo Giove Romano. The Theatines maintain a flourishing mission at Durango in Colorado, U. S. A. Pius X, in a Motu Proprio of 15 December, 1909, decreed the union of the ancient Congregation of the Regular Theatine Clergy with the youthful Spanish Congregation of the Holy Family at Barcelona. Besides the two saints, Gaetano, invoked for the interposition of Providence, and Andrea Avellino, against sudden death, the order furnished one pope, Paul IV (Giovanni Pietro Carafa), 250 bishops, archbishops, and papal legates, and the cardinals: Blessed Gio- vanni Marinoni, Blessed Paolo Burali d'Arezzo, Blessed Giuseppe Maria Tomasi, Giovanni Ber- nardino Scotti, Francesco and Domenico Pignatelli, Giuseppe Capece-Zurlo, Francesco Maria Banditi, ana Ferdinando Pignatelli, the last named created cardinal by Gregory XVI. Father Anton Francesco Vezzosi (whom Clement XIII wi.shed to make cardinal, but chose in.stead Fr. G.ang.anelli of the Conventuals who succeeded him in the papacy .as Clement XIV) treats of the illustrious men of the order in his work "I scrittori de' chierici regolari detti Teatini", Rome, 1780. The last famous Theat ine was the philosopher, lilleraleur, and great sacred orator, Father Gioac- chino Ventura dei baroni di Raulica, a Sicilian. He