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 ACARIAMNHILL

661

TWTAl^TAiar

'* Qus mari sinico " of Leo XIII. The islands had pre- viously formed part of the Diocese of Cebu. By T)e- cree of 18 June, 1907, they were entrusted to the Capuchin Fathers of the Westphalian Province, to which order the present prefect Apostolic, Very Rev. Paul von Kirchhausen (appointed August, 1907; resi- dence in Saipan, Carolina Islands), belongs. There are two public schools, but accommodation is so inade- quate that the boys attend in the morning and the girls in the evening. The instruction is given in Eng- Gsh, and, in addition to the usual elementary subjects, carpentry and other trades are taught. Two priests are stationed at Agana; one in each of the smaller settlements, Agat and Merizo. In addition to the churches at these places, there is a church at Sainay and several little cnapels in the mountains. A priest from Agana visits each month the colony where the lepers are segregated, to celebrate Mass and ad- nunister the sacraments. Catholicism is the sole re- ligion of the islands. Until 1908 the Institute of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart had a house

at Agana.

Battandxer, Annuaire Pontificale (1010): Report of the Smithsonian Inatittdion (1903); Stateeman's Year-Book (1910).

Thomas Kennedy.

Mariazmhill, Congregation of the Missionaries OF. — Mariannhill is located in Natal, near Pinetown, 15 miles from Durban, and 56 from Pietermaritzburg. In 1882 the Rev. Francis Pfanner, then prior of the Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) Monastery^ of Maria- stem (Bosnia), at the invitation of the late Bishop Ricards, and with the consent of the general chapter of that branch of the order called the Congregation of De Ranc^, volunteered to establish a monastery in Cape Colony, in order to try to adapt their rule to the missionary life. He landeid at Port Elizabeth with thirty-one companions in July, 1880, and settled in a place he called Dimbrody, after an old Irish monastery. This he had to abandon in 1882; and at the solicita- tion of the late Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., transferred his community to Mariannhill. Upon arrival there he set to work with indefatigable energy in the missionary field, and was blessed with such success that in 1885 Mariannhill was erected into an abbey, and Father Pfaimer was imanimously elected its first abbot, receiving the abbatial bleasing on the third anniver- sary of the founding of the monastery, 27 Dec., 1885. The same year Abbot Pfanner had started a branch of missionary sisters called "Sisters of the Precious Blood" to take charge of the native children and women; this congregation flourished abundantly, and was approved by Rome in 1907.

Mariannhill was too restricted for the zeal of Abbot Pfanner, so in the course of a few years, he founded seven mission stations, scattered over Natal, from Transvaal (Ratschitz) to Cape O)lony (Lourdes) in Griqualand. Each of these stations had a small com- munity of monks, and another of sisters, with church, school, etc., according to the needs of the natives. In 1892 Abbot Pfanner, who was then sixty-seven years of age, resigned and retired to Emmaus, one of the stations, where he died on 24 May, 199. He was immediately succeeded by Dom Amandus Schoelzig as administrator, and in 1894 as abbnot. Under his wise administration nine stations were founded in Natal and Cape Colony, and two houses in German East Africa. Abbot Amandus died in January, 1900, a martyr to the great work and its many cares. In Sept. of the same year he was succeeded by Abbot Gerard Wolpert, who had spent the greater part of his missionary life at the Czenstochau Station. He founded a station in Mashonaland, Rhodesia, and two more in Natal, so that his activity was divided be- tween German East Africa, Rhodesia, Natal and Cape Colony. This, however, w^ too much for his strengtn; Mb health gave way, and being anxious to return to

his mission life at Czenstochau, he resigned his posi- tion in 1904.

During the general chapter of the order held that year at Citeaux, the Rt. Kev. Edmond M. Obrecht, Abbot of the Abbey of Gethsemani, U. S. A., was ap- pointed, with the approbation of the Holy See, Admin- istrator of Mariannhill. His principal labour was to enquire into the adaptability of the Cistercian to the missionary life; after three years of work in Africa the Abbot of Gethsemani submitted his report to Rome and the general chapter, from which it was decided that Mariannhill should become an independent con- gregation, as otherwise either the monastic observ- ances or the missionary labour had to suffer. Conse- Suently Propaganda delegated Rt. Rev. Bishop Miller, ►.M.I., Vicar- Apostolic of Transvaal, to arrange for such independence, according to the wishes of the Reformed Cistercians, and the members of Mariann- hill. Finallv the Congregation of Regulars, on 2 Feb., 1909, issued a decree separating Mariannhill from the Order of Reformed Cistercians, forming of it the erecting their church into a Collegiate Church, under the guidance of a provost. The members of the con- gregation take simple, but perpetual, vows; and are exempt from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary of tiie diocese. They at present number about 60 priests, with 260 choir-religious and lay-brothers. From its foundation until 1 Jan. 1910, nearly 20,000 persons, the greater number adults, have been baptized In the 55 churches and chapels scattered throughout the 26 missions and stations.
 * ' Congregation of the Mariannhill Missionaries'' and

Trappielen Miiaions Kloater MariannhiU (Freiburg, 1907); Vergissmeinnickt, Zeitachrift der Mariannhiller Mvuion, 188S~ 1910; Maxiati/ahiUer KaUnder, 1888-1910; Ada S. Sedie, 20 Dec., 1909; Aaiea du Chapitre 06n. dee Cisterciena Riformis (1904-1907)1 Utippislen imd ihre Miaaion in MariannhiU; Abt Franz Pfatmer Q8o5); Boek£n. Um und in Afrika (O}logne, 1903).

Edmond M. Obrecht.

Marian Pnests. — ^This term is applied to those English priests who being ordained in or before the reign of Queen Mary (1553-1558), survived iaifi the reign of Elizabeth. The expression is used in contra- distinction to "Seminary Priests" by which was meant priests ordained at Douai, Rome, or other English seminaries abroad. Shortly after Elizabeth's accession ordinations ceased altogether in England in consequence of the imprisonment of the surviving bishops, and unless the Seminary priests had begun to land in England to take the place of the older priests who were dying off, the Catholic priesthood would have become e^inct in England. There was an im- portant distinction between the Marian priests and the Seminary priests in the fact that the penal legislation of the rigorous statute 27 Ehz. c. 2 only applied to the latter who were forbidden to come into or remain in the realm under pain of high treason. Therefore the Marian priests only came under the earlier statutes. e. g. 1 Elizabeth c. 1 which inflicted penalties on all who maintained the spiritual or ecclesiastical author- ity of any foreign prelate, or 5 Eliz. c. 1 which made it high treason to maintain the authority of the Bishop of Rome, or to refuse the Oath of Supremacy. The recent researches of Dom Norbert Birt have shown that the number of Marian priests who were driven from their livings was far greater than has been com- monly supposed. After a careful study of all available sources of information he estimates the number of priests holding livings in England at Elizabeth's acces- sion at 7500 (p. 162). A large number, forming the majority of these, accepted, though unwillingly, the new state of things, and according to tradition many of them were in the habit of celebrating Mass early, and of reading the Church of England service later on Sunday morning. But the number of Marian priests who refused to conform was very large, and the fre- quently repeated statement that only two hundred of