Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/691

 DAMASUS

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DAMASUS

churches. The Maronite diocese has 23,000 faithful, Go priests, 61 churches, SO Baladite monks in 5 mon- asteries, and 150 Alcppine monks in 6 monasteries. There are in Damascus 14 churclies, of which 9 belong to the different Catholic rites. There are also 14 synagogues and 1 Protestant church. The Lazarists, who replaced the Jesuits at the time of their suppres- sion, conduct a college with about 200 pupils. The Jesuits have occupied since 1872 a house said to have been that of St. John Damascene. The Franciscans have the Latin parish church and a school for boys. The Sisters of Charity ( 1854) have several schools, an

to come to Rome or its vicinity. The party of the antipope (later at Milan .an adherent of the Arians and to the end a contentious pretender) did not cease to persecute Damasus. An accusation of adultery was laid against him (378) in the imperial court, but he was exonerated by Emperor Gratian himself (JVIansi, Coll. Cone, III, 628) and soon after by a Roman synod of forty-four bishops (Liber Pontificalis, ed. Du- chesne, s. v.; Mansi, op. cit., Ill, 419) which also ex- communicated his accusers.

Damasus defended with vigour the Catholic Faith in a time of dire and varied perils. In two Roman

orphanage, a dispensary, etc. The Mariamet native synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism sisters conduct another school. The Catholic Greeks and Macedonianism ; he also sent his legates to the have their schools for boj-s and girls. .\s to the Prot- Council of Constantinople (381), convoked against the

estants, the Anglo- Syrians possess a hos- pital and a school, the American mission and the Irish mission each one school. The Mussulmans have a large municipal hos- pital and a leper's hospital.

Von Schubert, Reisc 171 rfrt.s Morgcnland (Er- lannen, 1840). Ill, 276- 304; Wilson. The Lnnth of Ihc Bible (Edinbumli. 1647). II. 325-369: -

Fit

Dn-

(London, 1871); UoBlNSO.v. Biblical lie- searches in Palestine (Lon- don, 1856), III, 443-472; Sketzen, Reisen dure/t Syria (Berlin, 1854), I, 264-2S5; Thomson. The Land and the Book (Lon- don. 1SS6),III. 361-117; LoKTET. La Syrie d'aii- jourd'hui in Lc tour du monde, XLIV, 358-384; Gt'EKlN. La Terrf-Sainlc (Paris, 1882). I, 383-420; Sauvairp, Description de Damas in Journed asia- tiqiie, years 1894, 1895,

1896; MEISTER.MAXN,

\oitveau guide de Terre Sninte (Paris. 1907), 443- 463; Legendre, s. v. in Iheldela Bible. 11.1213-

12:^1; CflNET, ''<l/rir.

I.tinn rl Palestine (Paris. IMIM. 300-407; Jullikn. Lrt tioiivelle mission de la c. de J. en Syrie. (Paris, 1899). II, 13.5-144; Mis- ttiones catholicec (Rome, 1907), 780, 804, 817.

S. Vailhe.

Damasus I, S.mnt, Pope,!), about 304; d. 1 1 December, 384. His father, Antonius,

Pope St. Damasus I iLuKgie di Uaffaelle, Vatican. Designed by Kaijliael)

probably a Spaniard; the name of his mother, Laurentia, w;is not known until quite recently. Damasus seems to have been born at Rome; it is certain that he grew up there in the service of the church of the martyr St. Lau- secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude

aforesaid heresies. In the Roman synod of 3(39 (or 370) Auxen- tius, the ."Vrian Bishop of Milan, was excom- municated ; he held the see, however, \mtilhisdeath,in 374, made way for St. Am- brose. The heretic Priscillian, con- demned by the Coim- cil of Saragossa (380) appealed to Damasus, but in vain. It was Damasus who induced Saint Jerome to un- dertake his famous revision of the earlier Latin versions of the Bible (see Vulgate). St. Jerome was also his confidential secre- tary for some time (Ep. cxxiii, n. 10). An important Canon of the New Testa- ment was proclaimed by him in the Roman synod of 374. The Eastern Church, in the person of St. Basil of Ccesarea, besought earnestly the aid and encouragement of Da- masus against trium- phant Arianism ; the pope, however, cher- ished some degree of suspicion against the great Cappadocian Doctor. In the matter of the M e 1 e t i a n Schism at Antioch, Dama.sus, with .■Vthanasius and Peter of Alexandria, sym|iatliized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy; on the death of .Meletius he sought to

rence. He was elected pope in October, 366, by a large majority, but a number of over-zealous adher- ents of the deceased Liberius rejected him, chose the deacon LTrsinus (or I'rsicinus), had the latter irregu- larly con.secrated, and re-sorted to much violence ami blodiLshed in order to se;it him in the Chair of Peter. Many details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced "Libellus Prccum" (P. L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters (cf. also .\mmianus Marcellinus. Rer. Ge.st.. XXVII, c. iii). Valentinian recognized Dama- sus and banished (367) I'rsinus to Cologne, whence he

Flavian (Socrates, Hist. Eccl., V, xv). Ho sustained the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gra- ti;in for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House (.\mbro.se, Ep. xvii, n. 10), and lived to welcome the f;mious edict of Theodosius I, "De fi.lc Catholica" (27 Feb., .380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was supreme head (Cod. Theod., XVI, 1, 2).

When, in 379, Illyricum was detached from the Western Empire, D;ima.sus hastened to safeguard the authority of the Roman Church by the .appointment of

was later allowed to return to Milan, but was forbidden a vicar Apostolic in the person of .iVscholius, Bishop of