Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/594

 JOSEPHUS

JOSEPHUS

priests and 10 lay brothers. About 170 of these priests are engaged as missionaries, the others as teachers in the above named colleges. The following missions are under the care of the society: the Telugu Mission in the Archdiocese of Madras in British India, since 1875; the Prefecture Apostolic of Labuan and North Borneo, since 1881 ; the Maori Mission in the Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand, since 1886; the Prefecture Apostolic of Kafiristan and Kashmir in the northern part of India, since 1887; the Vicariate ApostoUc of the Upper Nile or Uganda in British East Africa, since 1894; a few stations in the Belgian Congo, since 1903; and in the Diocese of Jaro, in the Pliilippine Islands, since 1906, there are about thirty priests of the society. The rules and constitutions of the society received the final definite approval of the Holy See 25 April, 1908.

Sisters of St. Joseph's Society for Foreign Missions, of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, founded in 1883 by Cardinal Vaughan and Mother Mary Francis Ingham, to co-operate in the work of the Mill Hill Fathers. The cardinal's idea was that the sisters should stand in the same relation to the fathers of the society as the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul to the Lazarist Fathers. They undertake any work, at home or abroad, indicated for them by the superior general or the bishop of the diocese. There are no lay sisters. The novitiate is at Patricraft, Manchester, where the sisters have also homes for boys and girls and a nursery, with about 200 children under 40 sisters. In addition to their establishments at Mill Hill and Manchester, the congregation has a branch house at Blackburn with boarding-schools for boys and girls of the middle class and an orphanage for children of the poorer class, with 10 sisters in charge of 70 to 80 children; at Blackburn the sisters teach in 3 elementary schools. They have branches also at Freshfield (Liverpool), at Waterford and Cork in Ire- land, and at Rozendaal in Holland. In Borneo there are 17 sisters at various mission stations. The total number of professed sisters in the congregation is 120.

St. Joseph's Foreign Missionary Advocate^ a quarterly (Mill Hill, 1883 — ); St. Josefs Missionsblat, monthly organ of the Tyrolese branch of the society (Brixen, 1896—) ; St. Josef s-Mis- sions-Gesellschaft des heiligsten Herzens von Mill Hill (Brixen, 1892); Annalen van het Missiehuis te Rozendaal (monthly).

Michael, Ott.

Josephus, Flavius, Jewish historian, b. a. d. 37, at Jerusalem; d. about 101. He belonged to a dis- tinguished priestly family, whose paternal ancestors he himself traces back five generations; his mother's family claimed descent from the Machabeans. He received a good education, and association with dis- tinguished scholars developed his intellectual gifts, more especially his memory and power of judgment. He also made himself fully acquainted with and tried the leading politico-religious Jewish parties of his age — the Essenes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. Impressed by the outward importance of the Pharisees and hop- ing to secure through them a position of influence, he attached himself to their party at the age of nineteen, although he shared neither their religious nor polite ical views. He went to Rome in the year 64 with the object of procuring from Nero the release of some im- I)risoned Jewish priests, who were friends of his. He succeeded in winning the favour of Poppaea Sabina, the emperor's consort, and through her influence gained his cause. But he was so dazzled by the bril- liant court life in the metropolis of the world, that he became ever more estranged from the spirit of strict .ludaism, considering its struggle against paganism as useless. After his return to Jerusalem, the great Jewish revolt broke out in the year 66. Like most of the aristocratic Jews, Josephus at first dis- countenanced the rebellion of his countrymen, goaded into activity by their enslaved condition and outraged rehgious sentiments; when, however, fortune .seemed to favour the insurgents, Josephus like the rest of the

priestly nobility joined them, and was chosen by the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem to be commander-in-chief in Galilee. As such he established in every city through- out the country a council of judges, the members of which were recruited from those who .shared his po- litical views. He guided the diplomatic negotiations as well as the military enterprises with prudence and astuteness. In the beginning the Jews were success- ful, but later when the Roman General Vespasian advanced with the main army from Antioch to Gali- lee, burning and murdering, the insurgents either fled or sought shelter in their fortresses. For six weeks Josephus and the boldest spirits among the insur- gents defended themselves in the almost impregnable fortress of Jotapata. In the summer of 67, the gar- rison being now exhausted from lack of water and other necessaries, the Romans stormed the citadel; most of the patriots were put to the sword, but Jo- sephus escaped the massacre by hiding in an inac- cessible cistern, and emerged only after receiving an assurance that his life would be spared. Brought be- fore the victorious general, he sought with great shrewdness to ingratiate himself with Vespasian, fore- telling his elevation, as well as that of his son Titus, to the imperial dignity. Vespasian, however, kept him near him as a prisoner, and it was only in the year 69, after he had actually become emperor, that he re- stored to Josephus his liberty.

As a freedman of Vespasian, Josephus assumed in accordance with the Roman custom the former's family name of Flavianus. He accompanied the emperor as far as Egypt, when the latter had handed over to his son the prosecution of the Jewish War, but then joined the retinue of Titus, and was an eyewit- ness of the destruction of the Holy City and her Tem- ple. At his personal risk he had tried to persuade the Jews to surrender. After the fall of the city he went to Rome with Titus, and took part in the latter's tri- umph. But these scenes did not trouble Josephus's sense of national honour; on the contrary, he accepted the privilege of Roman citizenship in recognition of his services, and was granted a yearly stipend and also lands in Judea. The succeeding emperors, Titus and his cruel brother Domitian, also showed themselves kindly disposed towards Josephus, and conferred on him many marks of distinction. At court he was allowed to devote himself unmolested to his literary work until his death, which occurred in the reign of Trajan (probably in 101). In his life, as in his writ- ings, he pursued a policy midway between Jewish and pagan culture, for which he was accused by his Jewish countrymen of being unprincipled and hypocritical. His works — with the exception of the "Jewish War", which was first written in Hebrew and thence trans- lated—were written in elegant Greek, to influence the educated class of his time, and free them from various prejudices against Judaism.

The first work of Josephus was the "Jewish War" {U.(pl ToO 'lovSa.'iKov TToX^/iov) in seven books. This is mainly based on his memoranda made during the war of independence (66-73), on the memoirs of Vespasian, and on letters of King Agrippa. While his story of warlike events is reliable, the account of his own do- ings is strongly tinctured with foolish self-adulation. This work furnishes the historical background for numerous historical romances, among those of modern times "Lucius Flavius" by J. Spillmann, S.J., and "The End of Juda" by Anton de Waal.

Josephus's second work, the "Jewish Antiquities" ('lovSaiKri 'Apxa-coXoyla), contains in twenty books the whole history of the Jews from the Creation to the out- break of the revolt in a. d. 66. Books I-XI are based on the text of the Septuagint, though at times he also repeats traditional explanations current among the Jews in later times. He also quotes numerous pas- sages from Greek authors whose writings are now lost. On the other hand he made allowance for the tastes