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 BETHSAIDA

536

BETHSAIDA

favourable to it, but due chiefly to the influence of Cardinal Mellini, former nuncio at Madrid, Roderick of the Cross at length overcame all difficulties and in the Bull of 26 March, 1687, Innocent XI authorized these religious to make the tliree solemn vows accord- ing to the rule of St. Augustine and to have a superior- general, and granted them all the privileges of the Augustinian friars and convents. Later, Clement XI renewed this authorization and these favours, adding thereunto the privileges of the mendicant orders, of the Regular Clerks, of the Ministers of the Sick, and of the Hospitallers of Charity of St. Hippolytus (1707).

Meanwhile the order was multiphnng its fotmda- tions in Latin America and was established in Are- quipa, Cuzco, Santiago de Cuba, Puebla, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Dajaka, Vera Cruz, Havana, Santiago de Chile, Buenos .\yres, and Guatemala la Nueva. A school for poor children was connected with every hospital and the pious, devoted lives of these religious won them esteem and gratitude. They were espe- cially admired during the plague of 1736. a fact unani- mously acknowledged by the writers who describe the condition of Latin ,\merica in the eighteenth century. But this did not prevent their suppression, as well as that of all other religious, in 1820. At that time their superior-general resided in Mexico and the Bethlehemites were scattered throughout two prov- inces, that of Peru including twenty-two houses and that of New Spain, eleven. To the ordinary religious vows they added that of caring for the sick even at the risk of their own lives. In 1688 Brother Anthony of the Cross, with the help of a pious woman, Marie Anne del Gualdo, founded at Guatemala a community of Betlilehemite nuns and a hospital exclusively for women. These nuns were cloistered and observed the same rule as the men and they, too, were sup- pressed in 1820.

Helyot, Hiittoire des ordres monasti/jiues. III, 355-356:_ VIII, 371-372; Baronius, Annales ecclesiastici (Lucca, 1753), XXIX, 179-lSO; Heimbucher, Die Orden und Kon^regationen, I, 497^98; de lIoNT-'iLvo, Vida del rewrable Pedro de San Jose Betancouri (Rome, 1718); Eyzaguirre, Los intereses catolicos en Amirica (Paris, 1S59), II, 304-306, 408^10.

J. M. Besse.

Bethsaida. — I. A City, or perhaps two cities, on the shore of the Lake of Genesareth, the frequent scene of Christ's preaching and miracles (Matt., xi, 21; Luke, x. 13). — II., in the Vulgate, a Pool in Jerusalem, also called Bethesda (John, v, 2). — III. A TiTrL.\R See.

I. The City. (Gr. p-qeaaiSi; .Aram. XTS n'a, "house, or place, of fishing".) The old WTiters, up to the sixteenth century, Icnew of but one Bethsaida, though they do not seem to have always indicated the same "site. Since then it has been a much debated question whether there were not two places of this name: one east of the Jordan; the other west, near Capharnaum. A Bethsaida, which the Te- trarch Philip enlarged into a city and named Julias, after the daughter of Augustus, existed east of the river, near where it enters the lake (Josephus, Ant., XVIII, ii, 1; Bell. Jud., II, ix, 1; III, x, 7; Vita, 72). Xear this Bethsaida took place the feeding of the five thousand (Luke, ix, 10) and the healing of the blind man (Mark, viii, 22). Whether another is to be admitted, depends on two questions on which the controversy mainly turns: whether Julias, though belonging politically to Gaulonitis, was comprised within the limits of Galilee (John, xii, 21) and whether, in Mark, vi, 45, and John, vi, 17, a direct crossing from the eastern to the western shore is intended. The negative view seems to be gaining ground. In the supposition of two Beth- saidas, the western would be the home of Peter, Andrew-, and Phihp (John, i, 44; xii, 21), and the Bethsaida of Matt., xi, 21 and Luke, x, 13. Julias is identified by many with et-Tell; but, as this is

somewhat too far up the river to answer Josephus c description, others prefer El-Araj, close to tnf shore, or iles'adiyeh farther east. The partisan? of a western Bethsaida are much divided on its site. 'Ainet-T;\bigha and Khan Minyeh are most favoured. II. The Pool. [Gr. /STjScraiSi, ti-qe«i5a, ISr,e^a.ei. — Bethesda is supported by most Gr. MSS., stili Bethzatha may be the true reading and Bethesda a corruption, as Bethsaida most probablj- is. Beth- esda probably = SlDn fTD (House of Mercy). The etymology of Bethzatha is uncer- tain.] This pool had five porches in which the sick lay "waiting for the moving of the waters" (John, V, 3) and most likely steps led down to it. Here the Saviour cured a man "that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity". The Vul- gate and most of the Fathers call it a " sheep pool ' ' (jrpofiaTiK-fi, prohattca) but the Greek tt\t of John, %, 2, IS loinmonlj un

derstood to mean that it was situated near the sheep gate. This would place it north of the temple area. The early wTiters speak of it as a double pool, the fifth portico running between the two basins, but give no details as to its location. From the sixth to the thirteenth centurj', it is mentioned as being near the present church of St. Anne. Just west of this church an old double pool w-as dis- covered some years ago, which is, there is little doubt, the pool spoken of by medieval WTiters, and probably the old pool of Bethesda. Since the fourteenth century Birket Isra'in, north-east of the temple area, is pointed out as Bethesda. Others prefer the Fountain of the Virgin ('Ain Sitti Mariain, or 'Ain Umm ed-Derej) because of its intermittent flow; or the pool of SUoe, which, being fed by the preceding, shares its intermittence. Lastly, some advocate Hammam esh-Shifa (Bath of Health), west of the temple area, because of its name.

III. The Titul.^r See. — It is uncertain at what period Bethsaida, the former of the two cities (Julias) mentioned under I, became a titular see depending on Sc>-thopolis. There was in the region of Xineveh another Bethsaida, with a Jacobite titu- lar bishop in 1278.

I. — In favour of the h\-pothesis of two cities of the same name. Robinsos, BM. Rescarclies (London, 1856), II, 405; III, 358; Rel.vnd. PalasHna (Utrecht. 1714), 653. 863; GuERts, Galilee (Paris, 1880;. I, 329; Ewl.SG in Ha-stings, Durt. W the Bible; Van Kasteren in Ree. BihI., Ill, 65 sqq. L"