Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/746

 WOLFF

682

WOLFGANG

three incumbents: Cyprian Wolicki, Mathias Gar- nysz, and Ludovicus Gorski.

The rehgious orders were widely diffused in the Diocese of Wloclawelc. In 1173 there arose in Pomerania the famous Cistercian monastery of Ohwa, and in 1251 the no less famous Abbey of Pephn. The Dominicans had monasteries at Dirs- chau and Brest; the Carmehtes at Zakrzew, Mar- cowice, and Bydgoszcz; the Franciscans at Inow- roclaw and Nieszawa. Other orders flourished in the various cities and villages of the diocese — Pauhnes (Reformed), FatebenefrateUi (or Order of St. John of God), Jesuits, Piarists, Lazarists. Among the communities of women the most ancient are those of the Prcmonstratensian Nuns of Zukow, founded in 1210, and the Benedictine Nuns of Zarnowiec, founded in 121.3. The convents are now nearly all extinct; the diocese, however, possesses the historic convent of Czenstochowa founded in 13S2 and occupied by a community of Pauhnes, or Hermits of St. Paul. In this convent is a highly venerated icon of the Blessed Virgin, visited every year by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. Czenstochowa is the national sanctuary of Poland. The Franciscans still possess monasteries at Kolo, foimded in 1456, and at WHoclawek, founded in 1524; the f>anciscan Sisters have a monastery at Wielun founded in 1682; the Dominican Sisters, one at PrzjTow, founded in 1626. The Sisters of Charity were established at Czenstochowa, Kalisz, Konin, Piotrkow, Sieradz, Wielun, Turek, and Wloclawek. According to official statistics, the number of regulars in the diocese is 37; the number of religious women, 24, besides 55 Sisters of Charity. The present cathedral of Wloc- lawek was begun in 1340 and completed in 1411. It was extremely wealthy and at the end of the sixteenth century there were 100 clergy attached to it. The Divine offices were celebrated in it unin- terruptedly, day and night. The cathedral chapter included eight prelates. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was established that no one who did not possess a title of nobility could become a canon. Pius IX, in 1862, granted the canons of this cathedral the right to wear the violet mozzetta. The chapter now consists of four prelates and eight canons. At Kalisz there is also an ancient collegiate church to which three prelates and four canons are now attached. The diocese is divided into three general consistories: at Wloclawek, Kalisz, and Piotrkow.

The number of secular priests is 538. The dioc- esan seminary, founded in 156S by Bishop Karn- kowski, is in a very flourishing condition. The educa- tion of the seminarists was in 1719 entrusted to the Lazarists, who continued in the charge until 1864. There are 102 seminarists. In 1910 the professors of the seminary began the publication of a splendid monthly review, "Ateneum kaplanski", which, for solidity of learning and wealth of theological and religious contents, holds the first place in the Catholic Press of Poland. The ancient Diocese of Wloclawek had much to suffer from Hussitism, and afterwards from Lutheranism. The negligence of Bishops Zebrzydowski, Drohiowski, and Uchanski contributed to the diffusion of the latter heresy. Pomerania was almost entirely lost to Catholicism. Numerous synods were convoked in the Diocese of Wloclawek. Chodynski mentions the acts .and decrees of forty- six sy/wfli vladislatienj>es, of which he publishes a large number. The first of these synods was held in 1227 and the hust in 1641.

Damalewicz, Vitft rladislaviensium episcopnrum (Cracow, 1642); RzEPNicKi, Vitrr priesulum Potonia. II (Posen. I7fi2), 1-86; Menti.ewicz, Wiadomouc o biskupach kruszwickxch (War- saw, 1843): KoMoitNicKi. O biskupach kruszxtnrkirh, porzntek dziejow kali-.l', ' , , , ■ .. - (Warsaw, 1857): Bartoszewicz in Encyclopednv, 1 1 1 (Warsaw, I860). 632-40; Hn.DER-

BRANDT, W\:l \ r ' '-irf o flawniejszym arrhulyaknruirie

pomorskim (J'.i.lm, Im.Ji, Chodynski, Mon. hist, dioec. Wtadi*-

lav., I-XI (Wladislaw, 1881-91): Idem, Statuta synodalia dioec. Wladislav. et Pomerania: (Warsaw, 1890) ; FiiALEK, Rozwoj i sklad hapitulyvjloclawskiej, podkoiiiecXIV i na poczatkuXV wieku (Warsaw. 1892); Idem, I'stnlenie chronologii biskupow wtodaw- skich (Cracow, 1894); Onio dirini officii ac Missarum ad usum dioec. Wladislav. pro an. bisscxl. 19U (Wladislaw, 1912).

A. Palmieri.

Wolft, George Dering, editor, b. at Martinsburg, West Virginia, 25 Aug., 1822; d. at Norristown, Penn- sylvania, 29 Jan., 1.894. His parents were Charlotte ^Volff, a woman of great intelligence, and Bernard Crouse Wolff (b. at Martinsburg, 1794), a prominent divine of the German Reformed Church (Lutheran). The family moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1835, the father becoming Enghsh pastor there. George graduated A. M. from Marshall College, Mercers- burg, Pennsylvania, and then studied law for three years at Easton. Though admitted to the Bar, he never practised, but after a four years' theological course became a minister of the German Reformed Church. The elder Wolff and his son were staunch followers of John Wilhamson Nevin, who in 1843 began to develop in their sect a system of theology which, whilst bitterly opposing CathoUcism, held Christ's Church to be a hving organism and sought to restore certain teachings of Christ repudiated by the Reformation (see G. D. Wolff's article "The Mercers- burg Movement" in "American Catholic Quarterly", 1878). George Wolff's scholarly attainments and sterhng worth brought him many important calls. The inconsistency of his religious tenets finally becoming clear to him, he joined the Catholic Church in 1871. The next year he became editor of the "Cathohc Mirror" pubhshed at Baltimore, leaving it the year following for the "Cathohc Standard" of Philadelphia, of which he died editor-in-chief. His editorial success caused him to be called to join Dr. James J. Corcoran and Father James O'Connor in establishing the "American Catholic Quarterly Re- view", first issued in Philadelphia, Jan., 1876. Father O'Connor was consecrated bishop in Aug. of that year and went to his laborious vicariate Apostolic in Ne- braska The other two editors sustained the chief work of the publication until their death. Wolff's articles were largely on matters of apologetic theology. His wife, Sarah Hill, became a convert to Cathohcism, as did his brother. Professor Christian Wolff.

In Memoriam, George Dering Wolff in .American Cathohc Quar~ terly Review (April, 1894); The Catholic Standard (Philadelphia, Feb., 1894.

Regina Randolph Jenkins.

Wolfgang, Sain-t. Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), b. about S34; d. at the vilkxge of Pupping in Upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three briUiant stjirs of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfg;xng, which illuminated the early medieval period of Germany with the undying splendour of their acts and services. St. ^^'olfgang sprang from a family of Swabian counts of PfuUingen (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., X, 53). When .seven years old he had an ecclesiastic as tutor at home; later he attended the celebrated monastic school on the Reichenau. Here he formed a strong friend.«:hip with Henry, brother of Bishop Poppo of \\iirzburg, whom he followed to \\'iirzburg in order to attend at the cathedral school there the lectures of the noted Ital- ian gramni;irian. Stephen of Novara. After Henry was made .Archbishop of Trier in 9.56, he called liis friend to IViiT, where Wolfgang became a teacher in the cathedral school. :ind also labovired for the reform of the archdiocese, notwithst.anding the enmity with which his efforts were met. Wolfgang's residence at Trier greatly influenced his monastic and ascetic tendencies, as here he came into connexion with the great reformatory monastery of the tenth century, St. Maximin of Trier, where he made the acquaintance of Ram wold, the teacher of St. Adalbert of Prague.