Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/239

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ROSS


201


ROSS


the bishop's invitation; but Austrian dislike of Italian influences brought it to an end in 1835. The same spirit drove the institute from Rovereto in 1835 and from Verona in 1849. The charge of the Sanctuary of S. Michele della Chiusa, an ancient abbey on a steep mountain-peak near Turin, was accepted in 1835 at the King of Sardinia's desire, and remains of deceased members of his house were transferred thither. This sanctuary is still kept, but the king's plan of a house of retreat was left unexecuted by his Government. A good number of elementary schools are conducted by the institute in various parts of northern Italy, and in 1906 it accepted the charge of the Church of S. Charles in the Corso at Rome. Noteworthy also are Rosmini's plans of an English college of missionaries for different parts of the British Empire, with a special training for work in India; his college of elementary masters in the insti- tute, still flourishing, and his project of a medical college towards which Prince d'Aremberg offered a large sum. An orphanage, founded with this money at Sainghin, near Lille, was closed in 1903 through the hostility of the French Government.

The founding of the English y)rovince is inseparably linked with the name of Luigi (icntili. This cultured and ardent young Roman threw himself whole- heartedly into religious life in 1831, and from the first felt greatly drawn towards England. Ambrose de Lisle was already inviting him to work in Leicester- shire, and Bishop Baines, Vicar Apostolic of the West- ern District, had offered him a post at Prior Park. To this college he was sent by Rosmini in 1835 with two companions to teach both lay and church students. He became rector there the next year, but the entrance of two of the bishop's clergy. Furlong and Hutton, into the institute brought the engagement to an abrupt close in 1839. Invited next to the Midland dis- trict, the fathers taught for a while at old Oscott, and in 1841 was opened the mission of Loughborough, which has since remained in the institute's hands. Many converts were made and some missions founded in the neighbourhood, and in 1843 the first public mission ever preached in England was given by Gen- tili and Furlong. In the same year at RatclifTe, near Leicester, were laid the foundations of a novitiate de- signed by Pugin, but in 1840 the present college for boys of the middle class was opened there. The mis- sion of Newport, Monmouthshire, was undertaken in 1847, that of Rugby in 1850 and Cardiff (of which only two churches are now retained by the institute) in 1854.

The fathers were all this time giving zealous aid towards dissipating that excessive fear of outward devotion which Enghsh Catholics had inherited from times of persecution. Rosmini's warm interest in England had led him to send thither some of the most capable and apostolic men he had, Pagani (this J. B. Pagani, author of "The Science of the Saints" and " Anima Divota", is to be distinguished from the Ital- ian provincial of the same name, author of a "Life of Rosmini", and other Rosminian works), Gentili, Rin- olfi, Ceroni, Cavalli, Gastaldi, Bertetti, Caccia, Sig- nini; and the mission of Gentili and Furlong, and also of Rinolfi and Lockhart, in many parts of the British Isles produced a deep and lasting effect. Gentili died of fever in Dublin, in 1848, while preaching a mission in a fever-stricken district. Of Lockhart it should be added that in 1854 he began the mission of Kingsland in North London, and here he worked for twenty years. The Church of St. Etheldreda, formerly chapel of the London palace of the bishops of Ely, and a fine specimen of thirteenth-century Gothic, was restored by the institute to Catholic worship in 1876, and Lockhart became its first rector. Other houses under the charge of the English province are the re- formatory called St. William's School at Market Weighton, Yorkshire, and two Irish industrial schools,


one at Upton near Cork, and, one towards which Count Moore gave land and money, at Clonmel. The latest mission established by the institute is that of Bexhill-on-Sea. The Rugby house, which had from 1850 the English novitiate, became in 1886 a junior- ate, or preparatory school for novices. The present novitiate stands in wooded grounds at Wadhurst, Sussex, and a house for Irish novices has been opened at Omeath on the shores of Carlingford Lough in the Archdiocese of Armagh.

In America Fr. Joseph Costa, after working single- handed in various parts of Illinois, gathered the first community of the institute about him at Galesburg in that state. Here they have St. Joseph's Church, which existed before; and in addition they have built Corpus Christi Church (1887) and College (1896) as well as St. Joseph's Academy, directed by Sisters of Providence, and in 1906 St. Mary's schools.

The provost-generals, since Rosmini's death have been Pagani, who succeeded in 1855, Bertetti (1860), Cappa (1874), Lanzoni (1877), and Bernardino Bal- sari in 1901. Other names deserving mention are Vincenzo de Vit, known principally for two works of vast labour and research, the "Lexicon totius Latini- tatis", a new and greatly enlarged edition of Forcel- lini, and the "Onomasticon", a dictionary of proper names; Giuseppe Calza, noteworthy as a philosopher; Paolo Perez, formerly professor at Padua, and master of a singularly delicate Italian style; Gastaldi, after- wards Archbishop of Turin; Cardozo-Ayres, Bishop of Pernambuco, who died at Rome during the Vatican Council, and whose incorrupt body has lately been transported with great veneration to his see; and two English priests, Richard Richardson, organizer of the holy war against intemperance, and enroller in it of 70,000 names; and Joseph Hirst, member of the Royal Archaeological Institute. (See Rosmini and RosMiNiANisM, Gentili, Lockhart, Sisters op Providence.)

Rosmini, Maxims of Christian Perfection (London, 1888); Idem, Letters (London, 1901); Lockhart, Life of Rosmini (Lon- don, 1886) ; Paoani, Life of Rosmini (London, 1907) ; Missions iti Ireland (Dublin, 1855) ; Vita di Rosmini da un sacerdote dell' Instituto (Turin, 1897). W. H. PoLLARD.

Ross, Diocese of (Rossensis), in Ireland. This see was founded by St. Fachtna, and the place- name was variously known as Roscairbre and Rosail- ithir (Ross of the pilgrims). St. Fachtna founded the School of Ross as well as the see; and his death occurred about 590, on 14 August, on which day his feast is celebrated. The succession of bishops was uninterrupted till after the Reformation period. King John in 1207 granted the cantred of Rosailithir to David Roche, regardless of the claims of the native chief, the O'DriscoU, but the episcopal manors were left undisturbed. In 1306, the value of the bishop's mensa was 26 marks, while the cathedral was valued at 3 marks; and the tribal revenue of the see was but 45 pounds sterling. The number of parishes was 29, divided into 3 divisions; and there was a Cistercian abbey, Carrigilihy {de fonte vivo) ; also a Benedictine Priory at St. Clary's, Ross. The Franciscans ac- quired a foundation at Sherkin Island from the O'Driscolls in 1460. Owing to various cau.ses the see was not in a flourishing condition in the fourteenth century, and the Wars of the Roses contributed to the unfortunate state of affairs which prevailed in the second half of the fifteenth century. Blessed Thady MacCarthy was appointed Bishop in 1482, but was forcibly deprived of his see in 1488. However he was translated to the united Sees of Cork and Cloyne in 1490; was again a victim of political intrigues, and died a glorious confessor at Ivrea in 1492, being beatified in 1895. In 1517 the revenue of the dio- cese was but 60 marks. At that date the chapter was complete with 12 canons and 4 vicars, and there were 27 parishes, including three around Berehaven-