Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/691

 THERA

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THESSALONIANS

nary reticence, and extreme devoutness. He was a constant attendant at the sacraments, made com- plete arrangements for his funeral before he died, and was buried in the Church of Santo Tome.

Cossio. Memoir oj El Greco (3 veils.. Madrid. 1908); Barres AND Lafond, Domenico Theolocopuli (Paris. 1911).

George Charles Williamson.

Thera (or Santorin), Diocese op(Santorino), in the Cyclades. About the year 2000 b. c, the extin- guished volcano of the island renewed its activities, destroyed the population, and a portion of the island which was engulfed in the sea. In 236 b. c. another eruption separated the island of Therasia from Thera; in 196 B. c. the islet of Hiera sprang up (Pateo- Kaimeni); in a. d. 46 appeared Thia which was after- wards swallowed up by the sea; in 1570 a portion of the island of Thera caved in; in 1573 and 1711 two new islands arose; in 1866 there was a new volcanic eruption which lasted two years. The ancient town of Thera has been discovered at Haghios-Stephanos,near Mesa- vouno; the Ptolemies established an important gar- rison there. Sometime after the eruption of the year 2000 B. c, the island called Calliste was repeopled by the Pha'nicians, then by the Dorians who named it Thera about the year 620 b. c. ; it became successively a tributary of Sparta, Athens, the Ptolemies, and finally the Romans. It is believed that Christianity was alreadj' introduced there in the second century and that certain tombs belonged to that epoch (Hiller von Gartringen, "Thera", III, 195); a very old church dedicated to Saint ^lichael and other verj' an- cient churches hav'e been found there. The See of Thera was a suffragan of Rhodes in the seventh and tenth centuries (Gelzer, "Ungedruckte . . . Texte der Xotitifp episcopatuum", 542, 558). It became a metropolitan see in the eighteenth century and after the incorporation of the island with the Kingdom of Greece it was reduced in 1833 to a bishopric, which rank it still holds.

Le Quien (Oriens christ., I, 941) and Hiller von Gartringen (Thera, III, 198) give a list of twerity Greek bishops, of whom the greater part are posterior to the sixteenth centurj'; this list could easih be com- pleted. In 1207 the island fell into the power of a Latin lord, himself subject to the Duke of Naxos; the population decreased continually and in 1457 there were no more than 300 persons. In 1566 Thera fell under the domination of the Turks and took the name of Deir-Menlik. It received the name of Santorin only in the Middle Ages from Saint Irene, to whom theisland had a special devotion. A Latin diocese, suf- fragan of Naxos, was established there; a number of bishops are known, who belonged principally to the fourteenth centurj- (Le Quien, op. cit.. Ill, 1007-12; Eubel, "Hierarchia catholica medii a>vi", I, 4.56; II, 2.52; III, 309). Thera, in the district of the Cyclades, numbers 15,000 inhabitants, of whom 400 are Cath- ohcs; 8 secular priests; 1 parish; 2 churches with a resident priest; and 6 chapels. There is also a house of Lazarists, a convent belonging to the Sisters of Charity and another to the Dominican Sisters. The bishop has jurisdiction also over the islands of los, Amorgos, Siphnos, Seriphos, and Melos; the last only has Catholic inhabitants.

Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Geog., s. v.; PilGUES. Histoire du totcan et des iles volcamqxten de Santorin (Paris, 1842); ClOALLA, General alali.ilici of the Island of Thera ( Hermopolis. 1.S.50), in Greek ; Lachoix. ties de la Grice (Paris. IS.iS). 484-92; .Mamet. De in- sula Thera (Lille. 1874); FoiQci. Santorin rt sen fruplions (Paris. 1879); von Gartringen. Thera (.} vols.. Berlin, 1899- 1904); Miasiones catholica: (Rome. 1907), 149.

S. Vailh6.

Tbennse Basilicse, a titular .see in Cappadocia Prima, suffragan of C<Tsarea. The Greek "Xotitiae episcopatuum" down to the thirteenth century de- scribe the see a.s the first suffragan of Caesarea. Per- haps there Wiis a bishop from the time of St. Basil; in any case four others are mentioned : Firminus, present

at the Council of Chalcedon, 451; Photinus, at the Council of Con.itantinoplr, under the patriarch Gen- nadius (459) ; Mu.sunius, exiled by Justin I, about 518; Theodore, present at the .Sixth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, 681, and at the Council in TruUo, 692 (LeQuien, "Oriens christ.", 1,389). This see is evi- dently the city which Hierocles (Synecdemus, 699, 2) names Therma, and which he places in Cappadocia Prima under the Cesarean metropolis. It may quite probably be identified with Aquae Sarvenae, which the "Tabula" of Peutinger places on the road between Ta- vium and Caesarea, the same, doubtless, as Sarvena, a city described on an inscription and by Ptolemy (V, 6, 12). This would be to-day Terzili Hammam, a village about twenty hours north of Caesarea, a vilayet of Angora, where there are hot mineral sulphur waters, still frequented. A part of the building containing the baths is of Roman construction; a Christian in- scription has been found thereon. Therma, which the "Itinerarium Antonini", 204, places also on the road from Tavium to Caesarea, must be lamush Pis- heren Sou, a mineral spring to the north of Kir Shehir.

Ramsay in Bulletin de correspondartce hellhiique, VII (Paris, 1883), 302 sq.; Idem, Asia Minor (London, 1890). passim; Mul- LER, ed. DiDOT. Notes on Ptolemy, I, 854, 876.

S. P^TRIofeS.

ThemiopylfiB, a titular see and suffragan of Athens in Aehaia Prim;i. It is the name of a defile about 4 miles long, whose principal passage was barred by a wall, which the Phocidians erected against the Thes- salians in the sixth century b. c. It receives its name from two hot springs called to-day Loutra (the baths). There in the month of July, 480 b. c, Leonidas, King of Sparta, with 1300 Spartan soldiers and allies fell with his men while bravely opposing the enormous army of Xerxes. In 279 b. c. Brennus with 170,000 Gauls penetrated into Greece by this pa.ss; it was there also that Antiochus III, King of Syria, was defeated by the Romans in 191 B. c, and where in a. d. 395 Alaric, King of the Goths, p.assed on his way to de- vastate Greece. In the sixth century Justinian re- stored the fortifications (Procopius, "De aedificiis", IV, 2). After the Latins in 1204 had overthrown the Byzantine Empire, Thermopylae was made a Latin dio- cese. Many letters from Innocent III, written in 1208 and 1210 to Bishop Arnulfus, are extant. The other bishops from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century are mentioned by LeQuien ("Oriens christianus". Ill, 847-8.50; Gams, "Series episcoporum", 431; Eubel, "Hierarchia cathohca medii aevi", I, .509; II, 275; III, 332) ; but many of them were only titulars. The see is also referred to shortly after in the "Liber cen- Buum" of the Roman Church (ed. Fabre), II, 8; it was never a Greek diocese. To-daj' it is known as Lycostomos on the bank of the Mahac Gulf in the dis- trict of Phoiotis. The passage is less difficult than formerly because the alluvium deposited by the Sperchios has caused the sea to recede and has facili- tated a road between the waters and the mountain.

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.

S. Vailh^.

Tbessalonians, Epistles to the, two of the ca- nonical Epistles of St. Paul. This article will treat the Church of Thes.salonica, the authenticity, canonicity, time and place of writing, occasion, and contents of the two Epistles to that Church.

I. The Chi'rch of Thessalonica. — After Paul and Silas had, during the Apostle's second missionarj- journey, left Philippi, they proceeded to Thessa- lonica {Oeo-traXoviKTi, the modern Saloniki), perhaps because there was in the city a synagogue of the Jews (Acts, xvii, 2). Thes.salonica was the capital of the Roman Province of Macedonia; it was a free city, ruled by a popular as.sembly (cf. Acts, xvii, 5, (It riv Sijliov) and magistrates (cf. verse 6, iiri toi>5 Tro\iTdpxat). St. Paul at once began to preach the Gospel to the Jews and proselytes. For three successive sabbaths