MENGARINI
188
MENGARINI
Wales. It covers 0500 square miles of country, most of Glamorganshire, in all some 3500 square miles.
of which is rugged ami mountainous; there are nB
large towns, so that the CathoHc population of some
8500 souls is much scattered in coinilry districts. To
meet the spiritual needs of this little ilock there are
forty-three public churches, chapels, antl stations, be-
sides twelve chai^els belonging to religious conmiunities.
The number of priests (in 1910) is eighty-two, twenty-
eight seculars and hft\-four regulars; more than half
this numl^er of regulars is accounted for by the monas-
tery of Breton Benedictines, at Caermaria, near Car-
Though it was never an archljishopric, it is far from
clear when St. David's came definitely under the
metropolitan jurisdiction of Canterbury. About 1115,
however, Henry 1 intruded a Norman, Bernard (1 115-
1147), into the see. Bernard's rule was wise and
vigorous; but on the death of Henry he claimed
metropolitan jurisdiction over Wales, and presented
his suit unsuccessfully before six successive popes.
This claim was afterwards revived in the time of
Giraldus Cambrensis (q. v.). Among the more fa-
digan, the convent of Franciscan Capuchins at Pant- mous bishops who held the see before the Reformation
asaph, and St. Beuno's College, the theologate of the may be mentioned Peter de Lcia (1176-120.S), who be-
English Jesuits. These religious, as well as Oblates of gan the building of the present cathedral of St. David's;
Mary Immaculate and Passionists, serve various mis-
sions throughout the diocese. There are convents of
nme congregations of nuns, the Sisters of the Holy
Ghost (White Sisters) having no less than seven.
The church of Our Lady of Dolours, Wrexham, serves
Henry Gower (1328-47) ; and Edward Vaughan (1509-
23), who made considerable additions to the same; the
learned John Thorsby ( 1 347-50) afterwards transferred
to the Archbishopric of York; Henry Chicheley (q. v.)
(1408-14), afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; and
as pro-cathedral; on 10 August, 1909, a cathedral the notorious William Barlow (1536-48), the so-called
chapter, consisting
of a provost and four
canons, was erected.
The diocese is rich
in relics of the Ages
of Faith, thickly
strewn as it is Avith
churches once Cath-
olic, but now used
for Protestant wor-
ship, and with ruins
of ancient Catholic
sanctuaries and holy
wells named after the
countless saints of
the British Church;
most famous of these
is the holy well of St .
Winefride (q. v.) at
Holywell, which is
and always has been
Catholic hands.
East Cudir. 8t. David's CATHEonAL
(formerly Catholic), St. David's, Walea
This miraculous well has been a centre of pilgrim-
age from the earliest days of authentic Welsh his-
tory, and the saint still attracts her votaries to the
shrine, and dispenses her miraculous favours even in
this unbelieving age. The beautiful building which
stands over the well was erected towards the close of
the fifteenth century. The mission has been served that by favour of Callistus II, who canonized the saint, by the Society of Jesus since about 1600. St. Mary's two pilgrimages to St. David's were to be accounted College is a small episcopal college in the town, for the equal to one to Rome :-
consecrator of Arch-
bishop Parker in
1559. The last Cath-
olic bishop, Henry
.Morgan (15.54-59),
was, like the rest of
the Catholic bishops,
deprived of his see by
I'dizabeth, but was
■iaved by death from
■iharing their impris-
onment for theFaith.
The oldest por-
tions of thecathedral,
dating from 1180,
belong to the period
of transition from
the Early English to
the Decorated style
of architecture; the
additions of Bishop
Gower, including the
beautiful stone rood screen, are excellent examples of
the Decorated style, while to the north of the cathedral
are the ruins of his magnificent episcopal palace. In
1862 a partial restoration of the cathedral was begun
by Sir G. G. Scott. The shrine of St. David in the
cathedral was a famous place of pilgrimage; it is said
education of boys to supply priests for the diocese; the
Welsh language is a prominent feature in the curricu-
lum. The Diocese of Menevia is the restoration of the
ancient Catholic Diocese of St. David's, the founda-
tion of which, in the latter half of the sixth century,
is traditionally attributed to that saint. The con-
tention of recent historians that there were no terri-
Meneviam pete bis, Roman adire si vis;
Merces sequa tibi redditur hie et ibi;
Roma semel, quantum dat bis Menevia, tantum (ancient lines found at the shrine by Archbishop Peck- ham, 1240-92).
Catholic Directory (1840-1850: 1895-1910); Foley, Rccordt of English Province S. /....IV (London, 1878), 528 (for Holy-
torial bishops in Wales at so early a date, but only well); Beva^, Diocesan Histories St- David's (London, 1888):
monastic bishops without sees, is considered baseless ^TnrL-*Go%L"XV^s„EtS"/o/BW<?r^^^
by Dr. Zimmer, no parti.san authority. though 1908),285; GihalddsCambhensis, De Jurec(,S(a(uMen«iCT»«s
monasticism was strong in it, it did not impart to the icWe^^JRoIU Serira)^j Zimmer in Realencykl. fur prot.Theol.
(Welsh) Church either its character or its form"
(Rfalfncyklopiidie, X, 224). The four independent
\\(lsh sees were co-extensive with the four independ-
ent principalities that had come into being during
the sixth centurj'; Menevia with Dyfed, Llandaff
with Gwent, St. Asaph with Powys, Bangor with
GwTnedd.
d Kirche, s. vv. Keltische Kirche in Britannien und Jrland;
Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v. Gower; Vaughan; Thoresby; Chicheley;
Barlow.
Kbnelm Digby Beste.
Mengarini, Gregorio, pioneer missionary of the Flathead tribe (q. v.) and philologist of their language, b. in Rome, 21 July, 1811 ; d. at Santa Clara, Califor-
the records of the history of the diocese before Nor- nia, 23 September, 1886. He entered the Jesuit novi-
man times are very fragmentary, consisting of a few tiate in 1828, when barely seventeen, and later served
chance references in old chronicles, such as "Annales as instructor in grammar, for which his philological
Cambrife" and "Bruty Tywysogion" (Rolls Series), lient particularly fitted him, at Rome, Modena, and
Originally corresponding with the boundaries of Dy- Reggio. While studying at the Roman College in
fed (Demetia), St. David's eventually comprised all 1S39, a letter from Bishop Hosati of St. Louis, voicing
the country south of the River Dovey'and west of the the appeal of the Flatheads for missionary priests,
English border, with the exception of the greater part was read out in the refectory, and Mengarini was at
