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 DURAZZO

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DURER

Durazzo, Archdiocese of (Dyrrachiensis), in Albania, situated on the Adriatic, has a good port, and is the chief town of a sandjak in the vilayet of Scutari; the population is about 9000. According to Appian it was founded by a barbarian king, Epidam- nus, after whom it was called Epidamnum; it then took the name of Dyrrachium, from Dyrrachus, nephew of a daughter of Epidamnus, to whom was due its port. According to Thueydides and Strabo it was more probably a colony of Corcyra. It was one of the causes of the Peloponnesian War. Conquered by the kings of Illyria, when attacked by the Romans, it surrendered to the latter and received from Rome many privileges. Its port was important for com- munication with Greece. Cicero and Pompey in their di.sgrace took refuge at Dyrrachium. When towards the end of the fourth century the empire was divided into two parts, the city fell to the Eastern Empire. The Byzantine emperors made it a strong fortress, and Anastasius I was born there. After the seventh century it was the centre of a theme; in 1011 its governors received the title of dukes. Under Michael the Paphlagonian (10.34-1041) it was occupied by the Bulgarians; in 1042 it was retaken by the Greeks. In 1082 it was captured by Robert Guiscard, who de- feated Alexius Comnenus under its walls ; at the death of Robert it fell again into the power of the Greeks, who held it till the capture of Constantinople by the Latins (1204). From 1206 to 1294 it belonged to the despots of Epirus. It was then conquered by the Angevin kings of Naples, who gave it as a fief to princes of their family; the descendants of these riilers kept the title of "Duras" even when they no longer held the city. The effective lordship pa.ssed to the Thopias about the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1373 the city was occupied by the Balsas of the Zetta, in 1386 by the Venetians, and finally, in 1501, by the Turks.

The church of Durazzo is the most ancient in Albania. According to local tradition the first bishop of the country was St. Casarius, one of the Seventy Disciples. St. Astius, his successor, is said to have suffered martyrdom under Trajan about A. d. 100. A list of the Greek bishops is in Lequien (Oriens Christianus, II, 240-247), but it is very incomplete. Durazzo is even yet a metropolis for the Greeks. Under Eucharius, who attended the Council of Ephe- sus, 431, it was the metropolis of Epirus Nova or Illyria Grieca. The see, long disputed between the Greeks, the Bulgarians, and Serbs, remained finally in the hands of the first named. Its bishops, who as early as 519 had sided with Acacius, Patriarch of Constantinople, against Pope Hormisdas, followed the schism of Michael Cserularius in the eleventh century. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, after the Latin conquest of Constantinople, a Latin see was established there (1209). The Latin succession was often interrupted, on account of political changes; the actual (1908) archbishop is the fifty-second of the list (Lequien, III, 950-954; Gams, I, 407; II, 87; Eubel, I, 241 ; II, 164). The episcopal residence was likewise subject to several removals; after the Turkish con- quest the archbishops transferred it to Corbina (1509). then to Canovia; to-day they reside at Delbenisti. Durazzo had originally but one suffragan, Cemicum or Tzernicum, site unknown. Later it had Prisca, Croia, Alessio, and Canovia. To-day Alessio only is subject to the Archbishop of Durazzo, but his power over it has been so limited by Propaganda that he may be considered an archbishop \rithout a suffragan.

There are in the archdiocese about 250,000 inhabi- tants, of whom about 140,000 are Mussulmans (Turks and chiefly .\lbanese), 95,000 Greeks or Grsecized Albanese, 14,000 Catholics (Albanese, except a few Italians and Austrians). There are also at Elbassan about 150 recen'l" converted Greeks. The diocese v.— 14

has no seminary, but some students are sent to the seminary of Scutari. It has 20 priests, of whom 1.3 are secular priests, 22 parishes, 40 churches or chapels, 39 stations, 5 schools for boys and 1 for girls (the latter conducted by Sisters of Charity of Agram). Franciscan friars have charge of several parishes.

Farlvti, llbjricum sacrum, VII, 335-3S4: Degrand, Sou- venirs de la Haute Albanie (Paris, 1901), 179-183; Missiones Calholicce (Rome, 1907), 132.

L. Petit.

Durbin, Elish.^ John, the "patriarch-priest of Kentucky", b. 1 Feb., 1800, in Madison Co., in that State, of John D. Durbin, son of Christopher Durbin, pioneer, and Patience Logsdon; d. in 1887 at Shelby- ville, Kentucky. In 1816 he was sent to the prepara- tory seminary of St. Thomas, in Nelson Co., where he spent about four years of manual labour and study under such distinguished missionaries as David Flaget, Felix de Andreis, and Joseph Rosati ; thence he went to the near-by Seminary of St. Joseph, at Bards- town, where, in 1821-1822, he had as instructor Francis Patrick Kenrick, later Bishop of Philadelphia and Archbishop of Baltimore. He was ordained priest in Bardstown, by Bishop David, 21 Sept., 1822. Eariy in 1824 Bishop Flaget entrusted to him the pastoral care of western and south-western Kentucky, about thirty counties, with an area of over 11,000 square miles, nearly one-third of the State. Then began a missionary career of over sixty years hardly paralleled in the United States, and that subsequently won for him the names of "Apostle of Western Kentucky" and "Patriarch-Priest of Kentucky". Union County was the centre of his mission. From it he journeyed on horseback over his vast territory, erected churches, established stations, formed congregations, and visited isolated families. In the beginning duty called him beyond his mission proper into Indiana, and once a year to Nashville, Tennessee. He traversed his ex- tensive and sparsely settled mission incessantly for over sixty years, his churches, stations, and the rude homes of his poor flock his oiJy abiding places. Oc- casionally a communication from him would appear in the press, and then only in defence of truth or out- raged justice. When he did write, he wrote cogently and elegantly. Enfeebled by age, his sturdy constitu- tion gave way in 1884, when his bishop, yielding to his entreaties, assigned him the small mission at Princeton, Kentucky. After a stroke of paralysis he was given, in 1885, the chaplaincy of an academy, at Shelbyville, Ky., where he died.

The Catholic Advocate (Loui.sville, 1836-1887); The Record (Louisville. 1879-1887); Webb, Centenary of Calholiciiy in Kentucky (Louisville, 18S4); Howlett. Historical Tribute to St. Thomas' Seminary (St. Louis, 1906); Maes, Life of Rev. Charles Nerinckz (Cincinnati, 1880).

Louis G. Deppen.

Diirer, Albeecht, celebrated painter and en- graver, b. at Nuremberg, Germany, 21 May, 1471; d. there, 6 .\pril, 1528. Diirer left his native city, then famous for its commerce, learning, and art, but three times in his life. His first journey was undertaken after he had completed his apprenticeships both to his father, a goldsmith, and to the painter and engraver Wohlgemut; on this occasion he travelled through Germany and visited at Colmar and Basle the family "of the recently deceased Schongauer; in 1.505-^)7 he spent some time in Venice; in 1520- 1521 he went to the Netherlands, visiting especially Antwerp.

First Period: to 1505. — .\fter the earliest works of his youth (portraits, Madonnas, coats-of-arms, land- scape-sketches) he set up in 1494 a studio of his own. In the same year he marrie<l .\gnes Frey but they had no children. Amonghis Nuremberg friends the learned humanist Willibald Pirkheimer held the first place. Besides great advancement in learning, Diirer owed to Pirkheimer the happiness of a lifelong friendship