Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/369

 FULDENSIS

315

FULGENTIUS

In accordance with the Bulls "Provida solersque" of 1821 and "Ad dominici gregis custodiam" of 1827, the Diocese of Fulda was re-established in 1829, and made suffragan to the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, the first bishop being Johann Adam Rieger (1829-31).

In 1857 and 1871 the boundaries of the new diocese were so altered as to define the territory now em- braced within it. It was seriously affected by the Kulturkampf, the see being vacant from 1873 to 1881, and the seminary closed between 1873 and 1886; some of the religious communities suppressed at that time have never been re-established. The present bishop (1909) is Joseph Damian Sehmitt, consecrated in 1907.

Statistics. — The Diocese of Fulda embraces the Prussian administrative district of Kassel of the pro- vince of Hesse-Nassau, Bockenheim (a section of the civic circle of Frankfort-on-the-Main in the adminis- trative district of Wiesbaden), the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, and one parish of the Grand Duchy of Hesse; CathoUc population in 1900 was 167,306, in 1909 about 200,000. It comprises the exempt civic district of Fulda, with 3 parishes and 14 deaneries; for the care of souls, 150 parishes and curacies; 40 chaplaincies and posts as assistants; 53 administrative and teaching positions. The bishop is elected by the cathedral chapter, which consists of a dean, 4 capitu- lars and 4 prebends. The clergy employed in the care of souls in 1909 number 226 secular and 26 regu- lar priests, giving a total of 252 active clergy, includ- ing pastors, curates, chaplains, and assistant priests, as well as priests engaged in the work of teaching and administrative offices. The following orders and congregations are represented in the diocese: Fran- ciscans, at Fulda and Salmiinster, with (1907) 35 fathers, and 40 brothers: Oblates of Mary Immacu- late, at Hiinfeld, with 28 fathers, and 29 brothers; Brothers of Mercy, at Fulda, with 6 brothers. Com- munities of women are: 1 abbey of Benedictine nuns at Fulda, •n'ith 35 sisters; 1 monasters' of the English Ladies at Fulda, with 36 sisters ; Ursulines at Fritzlar, 32 sisters: Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul, 44 communities, with 363 sisters; Poor Servants of Christ, at Frankfort-Bockenheim, 18 sisters; Grey Nuns of St. Elizabeth, at Eisenach, 9 sisters; Vincen- tians at Kassel, 27 sisters; School Sisters of Divine Mercy at Kassel, 26 sisters.

The diocesan institutions are: the episcopal semi- nary at Fulda, with eight professors of theology; the episcopal gymnasium or preparator}' seminarj' at Fulda; the episcopal Latin schools at Amoneburg, Geisa, Hiinfeld, and Orb; the school for orphaned boys at Sannerz; a similar institution for girls at Maberzell, near Fulda; the reform school for young women at Iloras near Fulda; St. Joseph's House for Orphans and First Communicants at Hiinfeld; the Lioba Hospital for Incurables at Fulda; and the asylum for imbeciles at Fulda. The most important church of the diocese is the cathedral at Fulda, in the style of the Renaissance, erected by Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Schleifras (1704-12) on the site of the church built by Abbot Baugulf and his successors. It contains precious altars, a rich treasury, and, as its most important shrine, the tomb of St. Boniface, at which the bishops of Prussia, Baden, and Wiirtem- berg gather once a year (cf. Pfaff, "Der Dom zu Fulda", 2nd ed.. Fulda. 1855). Mention should also be made of the church of St. Michael at Fulda, dating from Carlovnngian times; the church on the Petersberg near Fulda; the church of St. Peter at Fritzlar, erected early in the thirteenth century; and the Protestant church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg, a noble specimen of the thirteenth century Gothic. The most popular place of pilgrimage in the diocese is the tomb of St. Boniface.

Brouwer, Fuldensixim antiqiiitaies libri TV (Antwerp, 1612): ScHANNAT, Corpus traditUmum Fuldensium (Leipzig, 1724);

Idem. FvMisrher Lchn-hof (Frankfort-on-the-Mairi. 1/20), Idem, Vindiciw quorundam archivi Fuldensis diptomatum (Frankfort-on-the-Main. 1728); Dronke, Tradiliones et anti- malates Fvldensee (Kassel, 1844); Idem, Codex diplomalicus Fuldensis (Kassel, 18S0; index, 1862); Ahnd, Geschichte des noclwslifls Fulda (FranUort, 1862); Gegenbauer, Das Klosler Fulda im Karolingerzeilalter (2 vols., 1871, 1873); Komp. Die zweite Schule Fuldas und das pdpstliches Seminar (Fulda. 1877); Idem in Kirchenlei.. s. v.; LoTZ, Die Hochschulc zu Fulda, in Ilesscnland, XII (1898); Heydenreich, Das alleste Fuldaer Carltdar (Leipzig, 1899); Richter, Die erslen Anfdnge der Dau-und Kunslliitigkeit des Klosters Fulda (Fulda, 1900); Idem, Qudlcti und Ahhandlungen zur Geschichte der Ablei und der Diii- zese Fulda, I-III (Fulda, 1904-07); Schemalismtis der Diozese Fulda (Fulda, 1904; new ed., 1909); Festgabe zum Bonifalius- j'ubilaum, 1905 (Fulda, 1905); a collection of original docu- ments relating to Fulda is in the course of preparation.

Joseph Lins.

Fuldensis Codex. See MSS. op the Bible.

Fulgentius, S.\int, Bishop of Ecija (Astigi), in Spain, at the beginning of the seventh century. Like his brothers Leander and Isidore, two holy Archbishops of Seville, of whom the first was older and the second youngerthan Fulgentius, he consecrated himself to the .service of the Church. A sister of the three was St. Florentina (q.v.). Their father Severianus lived at first in Cartagena; he was a Roman, and, according to later though doubtful information, an imperial prefect. Exact data regarding the life of Fulgentius are want- ing, as he is mentioned only occasionally in contem- porary sources. Leander, in his "Libellus" on the religious life written for his sister Florentina, states that he has sent Fulgentius back to his native town of Car- tagena, which he now regrets as he fears that harm may befall him, and he requests Florentina to pray for him. What the danger was to which Fulgentius was exposed we have no means of knowing. Probably through the influence of Leander, who was made Archbishop of Seville in the year 584 and who played an important part in the affairs of the Visigothic king- dom, Fulgentius became Bishop of Astigi (Ecija). in the ecclesiastical province of Seville. As Leander died in 600 and Pegasius is shown to have still been Bishop of Ecija in 590, we may safely assume that Fulgentius was chosen bishop between 590 and 600; at all events, he already occupied the see in 610. Isidore, who suc- ceeded to the Archbi-shopric of Seville upon the death of his brother Leander, dedicated to Fulgentius, "his lord, the servant of God", his work on the offices of the Church, "De ecclesiasticis officiis". In fact it was at the solicitation of Fulgentius that he wrote this account of the origin and authors of the Church ser- vices, i.e., of the Liturgy.

At the second synod of Seville (619), for which Isi- dore had assembled the bishops of the province of Bsetica, a controversy between the Bishop of Astigi and the Bishop of Cordova regarding a church which was claimed by each as belonging to a parish in his diocese was brought up for settlement; a commission was appointed, and it was declared that thirty years' undisturbed possession should constitute a legal title. Fulgentius attended the synod in person, his name being found among the signatures to the Acts of the council. This is the last event in the life of Fulgen- tius for which we have positive proof. In any case, he died before the year 633, as one Marcianus is shown to have then been Bishop of .\stigi. Fulgentius, like his sister and brothers, was reverenced as a saint. In Spain his feast was celebrated on different days ; in the "Acta Sanctorum" of the BoUandists it is on 14 January. He is frequently confused in medieval writings with Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe; some works have also been attributed to him, of which, however, no traces remain. It is said that long after their deaths the bones of St. Fulgentius and those of his sister, St. Florentina, were carried for safety into the Sierra de Guadalupe, and that in the fourteenth centuiy they were found in the village of Berzocana in those moun- tains.