Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/535

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MACEDONIA


492


McGEB


lectual powers in the philosophical treatise " A demon* stration of the existence of God *\ while his tract " On the state of Portiijgal " (1808) shows a sound percep- tion which is lackmp in his later prose work. A man of immense vanity, irregular life, and atrabilious tem- per, he yet had an affable manner and kindly heart ana contributed generously to charities. These quali- ties and his rare talents earned him a great position and much esteem so that, when he passed away, part of the population mourned his death as a national loss.

DA SiLVA, Memories para a vida de Josf Agoatinho de Macedo (Lisbon, 1899); Braqa, Obraa Inediku de JoaS Agodinho de Macedo, 2 vols. (Ldsbon, 1900-1).

Edgar Prestage.

Macedonia. See Paul, Saint, Apostle; Roman Empire; Saloniki; Turkish Empire.

MacedonianB. See Pneumatomachi.

Macerata and Tolentino, United Sees of^ in the Marches, Central Italy. Macerata is aprovincial cap- ital, situated on a hill, between the Cnienti and the Potenza rivers, from wnich there is a beautiful view of the sea. Its name is derived from maceries (ruins) , be- cause the town was built on the ruins of Hel via Recina, d city founded by Septimus Severus, and destroyed by Alanc in 408, after which its inhabitants established the towns of Macerata and Recanati. The former is mentioned apropos of the Gothic wars and of Deside- rius, King of the Lombards, after which time it fell into decadence. Nicholas IV restored it and, in 1290, established there a university renewed by Paul III in ^540; this pope made Macerata the residence of the governors cw the Marches, and thenceforth it was one of the towns most faithful to the papacy. Gregory XI .gave the city to Rudolf o Varani di Camerino, a papal general; the people, however, drove him away, wish- mg to be governed airectly by the Holy See. In the fifteenth centurv, the families of Malatesta of Rimini and Sforza of Milan struggled for the possession of Macerata, from which the latter were definitely ex- pelled in 1441. Later, the town became part of the Duchy of Urbino. In 1797 it was pillaged by the French. It has a fine cathedral, in which there is a mosaic of St. Michael by Calandra and a Madonna by Pinturicchio. There are, also, the beautiful churches of Santa Maria della Pace (1323) and of the Madonna delle Vergini (1550), the latter designed by Galasso da Carpi. The university has only the two faculties of law and medicine.

The episcopal see was created in 1320, after the sup- pression of that of Recanati, which was re-established m 1516, independently of Macerata, to which l£ist Sixtus V, in 1586, united the Diocese of Tolentino (a very ancient city in the province of Macerata), de- stroyed by the barbarians. Tolentino had bishops in the fifth century, and the martyrdom of St. Cater\'us, the apostle of the city, is referred to the time of Trajan. Besides its fine cathedral, this town contains Hie beautiful church of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, which belongs to the Augustinians, and in which is the tomb of its patron saint (1310). Tolentino is famous as the place where was signed the treaty between Napoleon and Pius VI, which gave Bologna, Ferrara, ana Romagna to the Cisalpine Republic. In 1815 was foujght between Macerata and Tolentino the battle in which the Austrians defeated Murat and which cost the latter the throne of Naples.

Among the distinguished men of Macerata are G. B. Crescimbeni, a poet of the thirteenth century, and Mario Crescimbeni, a man of letters of the seventeenth century and one of the founders of the Roman Arcadia; Father Matteo Ricci, S.J., astronomer, and missionary to China; the architect Floriani, who constructed the fortifications of Malta. The united sees are suffragan of Fermo and contain 25 parishes, with 46,200 inlmb- Itants; within their territory are 4 religious houses of


men, and 9 of women; they have 4 educational insti- tutes for male students, and 4 for girls, and a monthly theological publication.

Cappelletti, Ckiese d' Italia, III (Venice, 1857); FAOLiETn, Confereme suUa etoria anlica maceraUse (Macerata, 1884); Conr- fereme ndla tioria medioevaU macenUeee (Macerata, 1885).

U. Benigni.

McEyay, Fergus Patrick. See Toronto, Arch- diocese OF.

McFarland, FRAxas Patrick, third Bishop of Hartford (q. v.), b. at Franklin, Pa., 16 April, 1819; d. at Hartford, (5onn., 2 October, 1874. liis parents, John McFarland and Mary McKeever, emigrated from Armagh. From early childhood Francis had a predi- lection for the priestly state. Diligent and talented, he was employed as teacher in the village school, but soon entered Mount St. Mary's (]k>llege, Emmitsburg, Md., where he graduated with high honours and was retained as teacher. The following year, 1845, he was ordained, 18 May, at New York by Archbishop Hughes, who immediately detailed the young priest to a professor's chair at St. John's College, Forcfham. Father McFarland, however, longed for the direct ministry of souls and from his college made frequent missionary journeys among the scattered Catholics. After a year at Fordham he was appointed pastor of Watertown, N. Y., where his zeal was felt K)r many miles around. On March, 1851 , he was transferred by his new ordinary, Bishop McCloskey of Albany, to St. John's Church, Utica. For seven years the whole city was edified by his "saintly labours", and the news of his apostolic achievements reached as far as Rome. He was appointed Vicar-Apostolic of Florida, 9 March, 1857. He declined the nonour only to be elected Bishop of Hartford. He was consecrated at Providence, 14 March, 1858, and resided in that city until the division of his diocese in 1872 (see Provi- dence, Diocese of). Failing health prompted him, while attending the Vatican Council, to resign his see. His confreres of the American episcopate would not hear of such a step. They had learned to regard him as the embodiment of the virtues of a bishop and one of the brightest ornaments of their order. By divid- ingthe diocese it was hoped that his burden would be sufficiently lightened. lie left Providence for Hart- ford 28 Feb., 1872. After reorganizing his diocese he immediately set about the erection of a catheiiral, and to his enlightened initiative is owing the splendid edi- fice of which the Catholics of Connecticut are so justly proud. Bishop McFarland displayed rare wisdom in the administration of his see. His zeal and self-sacri- fice carried him everywhere, preaching, catechizing, lecturing, moving among priests and people as a saint and scholar. He was a man of fine intellect and com- manding presence. Austere and thoughtful, he al- ways preserved a quiet dignity and the humility of the true servant of Christ. He collected a valuable theo- lo^cal library which he beaueathed to his diocese. His death at the early age of nfty-five was mourned as a calamity. His name is still a household word among the Catholics of Connecticut.

HiMory of the Catholic Church in New England (Boston, 1899); The Connecticut Catholic Year Book (Hartford, Conn.); The Catholic Transcript (Hartford, Conn.), files.

T. S. DUGGAN.

MacFarlane, Angus. See Dunkeld, Diocese of.

McFaul, James A. See Trenton, Diocese of.

McGavick, Alexander J. See Chicago, Arch- diocese OP.

McGee, Thomas D'Arcy, editor, politician, and poet, b. at Carlingford, Co. Louth, Ireland, 13 April, 1825; assassinated at Ottawa, Canada, 7 April, ISCkS. He was a precocious youth and emigrating to the United States at seventeen a speech he made soon after at Providence, Rhode Island, on the Repeal of