Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/765

 OOULBURN

683

GOUNOD

DoNQEL-FucHS, UrhuTiden und Regesten sut Geschichte Gott- vjeigs (3 vols., Vienna, 1901-4) in Pontes Rerum Austr., Second Division, LI. LII, LV; Karlin, Codex tradiHonum monast. Gottwic. in Pontes Rer. Austr. (Vienna, 1S55), VIII; Topo- graphie von Niederdsterreich, publ. by the Verein fur Landesknnde von Niederosterreich (Vienna, 1893), III, 495-584; Dungel in Benedictiner-Buch (Wurzburg, 1883), 125-150.

Michael Ott.

Goulburn (Gdlburnensis), Diocese of, one of the sLx suffragan sees of the ecclesiastical province of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Goulburn, the episcopal city (population in 1901, 10,612), bestrides the Sydney-Melbourne railroad at an elevation of 2071 feet above the sea. The diocese has an excellent cli- mate, and a fcrtUe soil, that is devoted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, and to the cultivation of the vine, for which it is eminently suited. It is watered by the three principal rivers of Australia, the Murrum- bidgee, flowing through the midille of the diocese, and the Murray and the Lachlan on the southern and the northern boundaries respectively. The Barren Jack Reservoir (situated in the heart of the diocese) will, when completed, be among the largest bodies of con- served water in the world, with a capacity equal to that of Sydney Harbour, will be capable of irrigating several million acres of fertile land, and by promoting closer settlement and intensive cultivation, will in time make the Goulburn diocese the garden region of the great island-continent. The political and com- mercial importance of the region is also enhanced by the selection of the Yass-Canberra district, which is entirely within the diocesan borders, as the site of the future federal capital of the Australian commonwealth.

The two first resident priests of Goulburn were Fathers Fitzpatrick and Brennan, whose pastorate ex- tendeti from the coast to the Murray River. Goulburn formed part of the See of Sydney (q. v.) till 1864, when it was formed into a separate diocese. Dr. Bonaven- ture Cieoghegan was translated thereto from Adelaide, but died in Ireland in 1864, without having taken possession of the newly-created see. His successor was Dr. William Lanigan (consecrated at Goulburn, Pentecost Simday, 1867). He was the first Australian bishop consecrated in his own cathedral, and was an ardent promoter of Catholic education. He died 1.3 June, 1900. His successor (consecrated coadjutor to Dr. Lanigan, 7 July, 1895), is Dr. John Gallagher, the first priest ordained for the diocese (2 Nov., 1869). On his arrival, in 1870, there were in the diocese five priests. In November, 1908, there were 59 priests (51 seculars, 8 regulars), 24 parochial districts, 8 Christian Brothers, 279 sisters (187 Sisters of Mercy, 49 Presen- tation Sisters, 43 Sisters of St. Joseph), 2 orphanages for girls and 1 for boys, 1 college for boys, 5 boarding- schools for girls, 64 primary Catholic schools (sup- ported by voluntary contributions) with 4250 children in attendance, and a grand total of 5000 children re- ceiving the benefits of religious education. There is a parochial school in every district throughout the diocese where over thirty children can be brought together. Catholics constitute one-third of the popu- lation of the diocese, which is one of the best equipped in Australia.

MoRAN, History of the Catholic Church in Austrasia (Sydney, s. d.): The Australian Handbook: Levey, Hutchinson's Austra- lasian Encycloptedia (London, 1892).

Henry W. Cleart.

Gounod, Ch ARLEs-FRANf CIS, one of the most distin- guished French musicians and composers of the nine- teenth century, b. in Paris, on 17 June, 1818; d. there, 17 October, 1893. His father, a painter and architect of some distinction and a man of high character and sensitive nature, died when Charles was still in his childhood, and his education devolved upon his mother, a gifted pianist, who used her talents to pro- vide for her two sons, Charles and Urbain. Gounod was sent early to the Lycee Saint-Louis, where he was one of the best scholars. His musical gifts, strikingly

apparent from his earliest childhood, were carefully developed by his mother. He received his first great musical impression at the age of thirteen, when his mother took him to hear Rossmi's opera "Otello", the principal roles of which were presented by Malibran, Rubini, Lablache, and Tamburini, four of the greatest singers the world has ever heard. That same year he witnessed a performance of Mozart's " Don Juan" and was raised by it to a high pitch of enthusiasm. In fact Mozart remained Gounod's ideal throughout his career. Other works which he heard at this period and which left lasting effects upon his mind were Beet- hoven's Pastoral and Ninth Symphonies. Having taken his degree as Bachelier-es-tettres at the Lyc^e, he was sent by his mother to the Conservatoire, where he entered the theory classes of Reicha and Lesueur. Subsequently he studied counterpoint and composi- tion under Hal^vy and Paer, professors in the same institution.

In 1839 his cantata "Fernand" won for him the Grand Prix de Rome, carrying with it the privilege of a three years' so- journ in Rome and a year's travel in Germany at the expense of the Government. The stay in Rome was, for a young man like Gounod, with a mind receptive of general culture and a delicate ar- tistic tempera- ment, fruitful of results which re- mained with him for life. It was not alone the ait works of the Christian Era which absorbed his attention, but the monuments of pagan antiquity seemed to draw him even more powerfully. The great works of classic polyphony which he heard, Sunday after Sunday, in the Sistine Chapel undoubtedly left an indelible im- pression upon Gounod's imagination and memoi-y; still he does not seem to have penetrated to the life from which they sprang and the spirit which animated them, that is the spirit of the Church and her liturgy. This is easily accounted for when one considers that his favourite reading during this, the formative, period of his life was Goethe's "Faast" and the poems of Lamartine, and that the atmosphere in which he lived was not pronouncedly Christian. Throughout the greater part of the composer's career he seems to have been unable to rise above this dualism of principles and ideals. After leaving Italy, Gounod visited Vi- enna, where he wrote a requiem for chorus and orches- tra and a mass a capella. Both works were performed under his direction in the church of St. Charles. In 1842 he returned to Paris and was soon appointed choirmaster at the church of the Missions Etran^eres, a position which he held for four years and a half. It was during this period that Gounod thought he had a vocation for the priesthood, and for two semesters attended the lectures on theology at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. In 1848 he resigned his position as choirmaster. This seems to have been the turning- point in the young musician's career. In his auto- biography he takes us into his confidence: "For a composer, there is but one road to follow in order to make a name, and that is the theatre [the operatic stage]. The theatre is the place where one finds the

CliAKLES-FHANfOIS

After painting by Carolus Duran