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 VENIAL

333

VENICE

Porprtual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Caracas, celebrated there in December, 1907.

Mariano Marti, twenty-seventh Bishop of Vene- zuela and fifteenth of Caracas, bequeathed to posterity a very important work. In the compilation entitled "Documentos para la historia de la vida pubhca del Libert ador de Colombia, Peru y Bolivia", by General Jos6 Felix Blanco, vol. I, pp. 501, 502, we read: "I visited the diocese, making lists of and descriptions of all the villages, the distances, products, occupations of the inhabitants, etc. In the absence of a general census of Venezuela, the lists di-awn up by Marti, on his visitation of half of what was the Province of Venezuela, have served as the most probable data of the Venezuelan population towards the end of the seventeenth century. These statistical works of Marti's furnished the first data which the govern- ments of Venezuela obtained in the way of a formal census. A large folio volume, unpublished, of the visitations of this bishop is to be found in manuscript in the National Library at the capital of the United States of Venezuela (1875). Bishop Marti laid down wise rules for the reformation of the customs and services of churches. He died at Caracas, 20 Feb- ruary, 1792."

The Diocese of Merida (q. v.) has for its territory the States of Merida, Trujillo, Tachira, and Zamora in the most mountainous region of the republic. Its present bishop (1911) is Mgr. Antonio Ram6n Silva. In this diocese the traditions of ecclesiastical dis- cipline are well maintained, with a grateful memory of the bishops of old who organized its administration and bravely defended the rights of the Church, as well as of priests meritorious for wisdom, austerity, and jiatriotism. Among the former should be men- tioned Lasso de la Vega (Don Ramon), who, as a senator in the first Congresses of Colombia, admirably discharged his duties towards the interests of religion, and by whose intervention relations between the republic and the Holy See were first estabhshed. Transferred to the Diocese of Quito, he died there 4 .\pril, 1831. In 1904, when his tomb was opened, with a view to building a more artistic one, "his body was found in a state of good preservation, so much so as to permit of its being vested anew in pontificals and piously laid to rest in a new coflnn" (from a report sent by the secretary of the Archbishop of Quito to the present Bishop of M6rida). We may also mention Juan Hilario Boset, who died 26 May, 1873, while suffering exile on account of a pastoral which he issued in reference to the Civil Marriage Law. The present bishop has created the diocesan press, from which "Documentos para la historia de la Dioccsis de Merida" is being published — a work of individual zeal and the first great step taken in Venezuela towards the production of an ecclesiastical history. Here, too, is pubUshed the "Boletin Dio- cesano". There are other Catholic publications in the diocese — such as "El Castillo" of Valera, "La Cohnena" of Fdriba, the "Angel Guardidn" of Merida.

The Diocese of Guayana (see Saint Thomas of Guiana) covers the whole southern, south-eastern, and eastern portion of the repubUc. To its second bishop, Jose Antonio Mohedano (d. 1804), belongs the credit of introducing into Venezuela the cultivation of coffee; in 1783, while still parish priest of Chacao, in the neighbourhood of Caracas, he set out the first plantation of this shrub, which has become a great .source of agricultural prosperity to the nation. This diocese numbers in the list of its prelates Mariano Talavcra y (iarces, "the Orator of Colombia", and Mariano Ferndndez Fortique, an eminent man of letters. Bishop Talavcra, who governed the dioco.se only ijs vicar .Apostolic, edited a periodical called the "Cr6nica Kclesiasfica rie Venezuela", in which he gave some excellent data for the religious hi.story of

the country. It has not been possible to adequately cultivate this widely extended field of souls: the diocese has 102 parishes and only 40 priests all told. Such are the obstacles which the zeal and good will of the present bishop (1911), Mgr. Antonio Maria Durdn, has had to encounter.

Within the Diocese of Barquisimeto (q. v.) is included the territory of Coro, which was the first episcopal see of the country. It was at Coro that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was first celebrated on Venezuelan soil, in 1527, under a cuji (myrrh) tree. The cross which was used for the altar on this occa- sion was carefully preserved, and in 1864 Juan Cris6s- tomo Falc6n restored it and erected a monument to it in the same city. The present bishop of this diocese (1911), Mgr. Aguedo F. Alvarado, has infused much energy into its administration ever since his occu- pancy of the vicariate capitular, which lasted ten years. By means of pastoral visitations, organized as missions, and other resources of his apostolic zeal, the religious spirit of his flock has been greatly developed and strengthened. The diocese has its ecclesiastical bulletin and some Catholic periodicals — such as "Rayos de Luz" of Barquisimeto and "La Paz" of Guarico. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes serve in a hospital here and conduct a school for girls. The Little Sisters of the Poorof Maiquetia have houses at Barquisimeto and El Focuyo.

The Diocese of Calabozo (q. v.) comprises the cen- tral and south-eastern portions of the republic, where the plains of Venezuela are chiefly situated. This dio- cese is poorly supplied with clergy. The present bishop is Mgr. Felipe Neri Sendrea.

The Diocese of Zulia (q. v.) covers only the State of Zulia, in the extreme north-eastern part of the republic. Maracaibo, its capital, is a city of great importance, remarkable, also, for its religious fervour and attach- ment to Catholic principles. The present bishop (1911) is Mgr. .\rturo Celestino Alvarez, consecrated 6 November, 1910.

Tejera, Manual de historic ih Vi-k^wIi /irr-r (,.,?, A; ^ruflas y coicffios (1895); GoNZALFZ ( ii I ■. \ . // ' -/.vide

Venezuela (a monumental w- ■' ! ;- I ' ! :iu3-

pineg): Gil FoRTOTJL, i/t5^7^^( .', 'w ■/ - I ..-,. ; 1!M)7-

09) : La Religion (commemor:iti\ c nnnilur isnufd on the nrai cente- nary of Venezuelan indopendencc. ."> .lui.w l!Ul); Anuario estadis- tico de Venezuela, correspoudientr a IHOS (11110); Gaceta Oficiat, de Venezuela, no. 71.399 (statistical synopsis etc., 1910).

N. E. Navarro. Venial Sin. See Sin.

Venice, the capital of a province in Northern Italy, is formed of a group of 117 small islands joined to- gether by 378 bridges mostly built of stone. These islands are partly natural, partly artificial, constructed by means of piles driven into the bottom of the shallow sea, as all the houses of the city are built upon a net- work of rows of piles. The islands are separated by a number of canals, three of which are larger than the others; the Grand Canal, which traverses the city in the shape of a letter S, the Giudecca, and the S. Marco, which is the widest of all. The city is con- nected with the mainland by a railroad which crosses the lagoon on a bridge 2 miles 2555 feet in length. Transportation within the city is carried on by means of gondolas and also, on the three large canals, by small steamers. The lagoon of Venice is divided into the "dead" and the "living". The former (Laguna Mnrta) is a system of little salt lakes and marshes formed by the sedimentary deposits of the streams flowing down from the .\Ips, and extends from the mouth of the Po to that of the I.sonzo; the latter (Laguna Viva) is a shallow body of salt water out of which rise a few small islands, among them the group which forms the city itself. The Lngtuia Vivn i.*; sepa- rated from the Adriatic by a narrow strip of land (the Lido) which extends from Cliioggia to Cortellazzo at the mouth of the Piave. The strip of land is rein- forced at many points with Istrian marble, and has a