Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/455

 VliZELAY

397

VIATICUM

texts (unreviaed and revised) of the hymn in the Breviary and Graduate (Vatican edition).

H. T. Henry.

Vezelay. See Sens, Archdiocese of.

Vezzosi, .\xTONio Francesco, member of the Thcaline Congregation and biograDhical writer, b. at Arezzo, Italy, 4 October, 170S; 3. fn Rome, 29 May, 17S3. At an early age he determined to devote him- self entirely to the service of God and in 1731 he entered the Theatine Congi'egation. On account of his unusual abilities he was a))pointed professor of philosophy at the sem.inary at Rimini (1736-38). In 1742 he was sent to Rome as professor of theology at San Andrea della Valle. While here he became favourably known for his fine scholarship and loyal orthodoxy. His superiors entrusted him, therefore, with the editing of the collected works of Cardinal Tommasi (11 vols., Rome, 1749-69). The attention of Benedict XIV was thus called to him, and in 1753 the pope appointed him professor of church history at the College of the Sapienza and examiner of candidates for the episcopal office. Later he was also elected general of his congregation. Among his pubUcations are an oration on Leo X, "De laudibus Leonis" (Rome, 1752), and the biographical work, excellent for that era and still useful, "I scrittori de' Chierici regolari detti Teatini" (2 vols., Rome, 1780), which forms the basis of the "Bibliotheca Teatina" of P. Silvos.

Patricics Schlager.

Viader, Jose, b. at Gallimes, Catalonia, 27 Aug., 1765. He received the habit of St. Francis at Bar- celona in May, 1788, joined the missionary CoOege of San Fernando de Mexico in 1795, and was sent to California in the following year. Appointed assist- ant at the Indian mission of Santa Clara, he served there steadily until 1833, when he returned to Spain by way of Mexico and Cuba. For thirty-three years Father Viader was the faithful companion of the saintly Father Magin Catala. As such he fearlessly resisted the encroachments of the military and colo- nists, carried on the correspondence, and drew up the reports, which Father Catala countersigned. Hence it is that numerous letters of Father Viader concern- ing Mission Santa Clara still exist, whereas not one has thus far been discovered WTitten by Father Catala. Father Josi?, albeit an exemplary religious, knew how to make use of his great physical .strength and courage. On one occasion three Indians suddenly fell upon him, but he defeated them all, and they became his best friends. In 1818 he .accompanied the jiresidente of Misi6n San Jose to San Francisco and San Rafael; but otherwi.se he never left his Indians for any length of time. Like nearly all the missionaries, he in 1826 declined to take the oath of allegiance to the so- called Republic of Mexico.

Snntn Barfmra Mission Archives: Records of Mission Santa Clara; ICvoei.h.krdt, The Holy Man of SanJa Clara (San Fran- ci.-i-o. 19(W); TAfFrannscarwo/Ca/i/ornta (Harbor Springs, Michi- gan, 1S!I7).

Zephvrin Engelhardt.

Vianney, Jean-Baptiste-Marie. See Jean-Bap- tiste-Marie Vianney, Blessed.

Viaticum. — Name. — Among the ancient Greeks the custom prevailed of giving a supper to those setting out on a journey. This was called iSoijripiov, " Convivium, quod itineris comitibus pra>betur " (Hedericus. " I^x. grjec-lat."). The provision of all things necessarj' for such a journey, viz. food, money, clothes, utensils, and expense, wa.s called i<p6Siov. The adjectival equivalent in Latin of both these words is viaticux, i. e. "of or pertaining to a road or journey" (Facciolati and Forcellini, "Lexicon"). Thus in Plautus (Bacch., 1, 1, 61) we read that Bacchis had a supper prepared for his sister who was about to go on a journey: "Ego

Borori mea; coenam hodie dare volo viaticam", and (Capt. 2, 3, 89), "Sequere me, viaticum ut dem trapezita tibi", and in PUny (VII, ep. 12, in fine), "Vide ut mihi viaticum reddas, quod im- pend!". Subsequently the substantive "viaticum" figuratively meant the provision for the journey of life, and finally by metaphor the provision for the passage out of this world into the next. It is in this last meaning that the word is used in sacred liturgy.

Formerly it meant anything that gave spiritual strength and comfort to the dying and enabled them to make the journey into eternity with greater confi- dence and seciu'ity. For this reason anciently not only any sacrament administered to persons at the point of death, baptism (St. Basil, "Hom. in sac. bapt."; St. Gregory Naz., "Orat. de bapt."), con- firmation, penance, extreme unction (Moroni, "Diz. di erudizione stor.-eccl.), Eucharist (Fourth Counc. of Carthage, cap. 78, calls it "v-iaticum Eucharistia;"), but even prayers offered up or good works performed by themselves or by others in their behalf, e. g. alms- deeds (St. Cyprian), and finally anything that tended to reconcile the dying with God and the Church came under this designation. In the course of time "viati- cum" was applied to the Eucharist generally, but finally it acquired its present fixed, exclusive, and technical sense of Holy Communion given to those in danger of death. The Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Euch. sacr., n. 3) .says: "Sacred writers call it the Viaticum as well because it is the spiritual food bj' which we are supported in our mortal pilgrimage, as also because it prepares for us a passage to eternal glory and happiness". As early as a. d. 325 the Holy Eucharist given to the dying was called the "last and most neces.sary Viaticum" (Counc. of Nice, can. 13). Although .\ubespine. Bishop of Orleans, in his note on this canon says that "vi.aticum" here means only the reconciliation and absolution granted at the hour of death to public penitents who h.ad not performed the prescribcfl canonical penance, yet Macri (Hierolexi- con) decl.ares that it means simply "Sacramentum Eucharistiie, cui antonomastice nomen veri muni- minis convenit". Innocent I (402-17), in ".\d Ex- superium", and the First Council of Orange, 441, em- ployed this word in the same sense.

Minister. — Formerly Viaticum was .administered not only by bishops and priests, but also by deacons and clerics of inferior orders and even by lay people. During the persecutions lay peojile carried conse- crated particles to their homes and administered Holy Communion to themselves, and it is natural to con- clude that they received it as Viaticum in the same manner. Dionysius of Alexandria ("Ep. ad Fabium Antioch." in Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", VI, xliv) relates that Serapion, an old man in danger of death, re- ceived Viaticum from his nephew, a mere boy, who had received the consecrated particle from a priest. From a Decree of the Council of Reims (Regino, "De eccl. disc", I, cxx) it appears that sometimes even females carried the Viaticum to the dying, which practice the Council strictly forbade. .Apparently for a while it was difficult to eliminate this abuse, for Hincmar, .\rchbishop of Reims, required the diocesan visitors to inquire whether the priests gave Com- munion to the .sick with their own hands or by others', "per se et non per quemlibet ", and whether they gave the consecrated p.article to any lay person, "cuiquam laico", to carry it home for the sake of giving it to the dying (Marline, "De antiq. eccl. rit.", I, I, V, 2). After the tenth centiiry no mention is made of Lay persons carrying Viaticum to the dying, but deacons regularly administered it, .and from two manuscri[)l codices in the mona-stery of C.a.salis Bene- dict! it is evident that subdeacons carried it to the hou.se of the sick person, but that the priest adminis- tered it (Martdne, ibid.). At i)re.sent only p.arish priests or their assistants carry and administer it to