SAN LE(5N
448
SAN MARCO
each episcopate averaging less than ten j-ears. A pop-
ular tradition relating that the last provost had pre-
dicted that no bishop would reign over ten years was,
however, disproved by the tenth bishop, FeigerJe, who
reigned eleven years. Some of the bishops have
been very distinguished: Sigismund, Count Hohen-
wart, who was tutor of the Emperor Francis and
the .\rchduke Charles and became Prince Arch-
bishop of Vienna; the court preachers Jakob Frint,
Michael Wagner, and Ignaz Feigerle; above all Jo-
seph Fessler, the learned professor, skilful diploma-
tist, and secretary of the Vatican Council (d. 1872). In
1836 Johann Leonhard resigned the bishopric. At
present the diocese has two seminaries for boys, which
train candidates for the priesthood. P^cssler united
one of these seminaries with the seminary at the Bene-
dictine Abbey of Seitenstetten; the other was estab-
Ushed at Melk by the present Bishop Johann Rossler.
In 190S Rossler held the first diocesan synod of the in-
dependent Bishopric of Sankt Polten; the important
constitutions and acts of this synod have been
printed. The Diocese of Sankt Polten contains 620,-
000 Catholics; 479 secular priests; 505 members of
male orders in 16 houses; and 874 members of female
orders in 94 branch houses.
Felgel and Lampel. Urkundenbuch des Chorherrenstiftes Sankt Pdlten (2 vols., Vienna, 1891-1901); Kerschbadmer, Gesch. des Bistums St. Polten (2 vols., Vienna, 1875-76); Idem, Jubilaumskatalog aller Dwzesangeistlichen seit einem Jahrh. (1885); Erdin'ger, Diozesan-Nekrologium. Geschichtliche Beilagen zu den Kurrenden der Diozese (Vienna, 1885) ; Idem, Bihliographie des Klerxis der Diozese St. Pollen (Vienna, 1889); Fohringer, Das soziaU Wirken der katholischen Kirche in St. Polten (Vienna, 1900). C. WOLFSGRUBER.
San Leon del Amazonas, Prefecture ArosTOLic OF, in Peru. Though the section of Peru lying on the eastern side of the Andes was comprised in the Dio- ceses of Ayacucho, Chachapoyas, Cuzco, and Hu- anuco, yet there were many pagan Indian tribes, for- merly evangelized by the Jesuits, living outside of the sphere of civihzation, roaming through the forests, subject to no laws. Moved bj^ their pitiable condi- tion the Peruvian bishops, with the approval of the Government, requested the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, towards the close of the nineteenth cen- tury, to interest itself in their evangelization. As a result by a Decree of Propaganda, on 5 February, 1900, the uncivilized eastern portion of the state, known popularly as "la Montana", was divided into three prefectures Apo.stolic depending directly on Propaganda, that of San Le6n del Amazonas being the most northerly. It comprises the regions drained by the Rio Maran6n and the Amazon with their tribu- taries, except the Ryo Ucayaly, and extends to the frontiers of Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. To pre- vent controversies as to jurisdiction, which might arise with the existing sees, the mission territory, by the wording of the Decree of erection, is to be coex- tensive with the uncivilized portions of the older dio- ceses. As the Indians are nomadic the mi.ssionaries have first, by teaching them tlic rudiments of agri- culture, to overcf>me their wandering habits, and then strive to inculcate the fundamental truths of Chris- tianity; but frequently when success seems to be crowning their efforts the savages yield to their rov- ing in.stincts, and take again to their forest life. The mission, which is supported partly by the Govern- ment but chiefly by the Society of the Propagation of the Faith in Eastern Peru, is entrusted to the Au- gustinians and contains four priests, who depend di- rectly on their father general. The superior, R. P. Paulin Diaz, rfisides at Iquitos; there are stations also at Peba and Puento Melander. Another was estab- lished at Huabica in 1903, but six months later it waa destroyed by the Indians and the missionary mar- tyr.'^-d. (See Pkua Imkans.)
Mitfvme* Calholicm (Flome, 1907); Chantre y Hkrreka, Hiitt. de la» mi»ione> de In Compaflia de Jeniis en el Marafidn enpfitlol, 1637-1767 (Madrid. 1901). A. A. MacErLEAN.
San Luis Potosi, Diocese of (Sancti Ludovici
PoTosiEX.-iis), in Mexico, erected by Pius IX in 1854.
It includes the State of San Luis Potosi, and a small
portion of the State of Zacatecas. Its cathedral is
richly decorated. The Churcli of Mount Carmel is a
fine specimen of the Baroque style of areliitecture.
Before the revolution ther(> adjoined it a splendid
Carmelite convent, a spacious orchard, and lands
that extended to the sea, a distance of 400 miles. At
present, part of the convent has been rebuilt and
given to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, who preside
over a well-attended school. The sanctuary of Our
Lady of Guadalupe is also a magnificent church. The
Church of Mount Carmel, San Luis, PoTOsf
first bishop was Don Pedro Barajas, who si)ent most
of his episcopal life in exile. The second and third
bi.shops had very brief episcopates. The present
(and fourth) bishop, Don Ignacio Montes de Oca y
Obreg6n, rules in more peaceful times, and has been
able to build a large .seminary, where not only Mexican
subjects, but also some students from the United
States and Canada, receive a solid education, imparted
by a choice staff of profe.s.sors belonging to different
orders and to the secular clergy. A school of arts
and crafts has been founded under the Augustinian
Fathers, also an orphan asylum and a Catholic hos-
pital. The cathedral has its chapter, canonically
established; and there are 56 parishes with their
churches anrl schools, and about three times as many
chapels. The population of the diocese is (1910)
624,748 , all Catholic, except perhaps some fifty
foreigners. The capital, San Luis Potosi, has 82,946
inhabitants.
iJinriKiiii Archives; Pena, JUntorin de San Luis.
J. MoNTKs DE Oca y Obrkg6n.
San Marco and Bisignano, Diocese of (Sancti Marci et BiHiNiANE.VHis), in the Province of Co- senza in Calabria, Italy. San Marco Argentano (so called because it is near the ancient Argenta) was founded in the eleventh (lentury by the Norman Drogo, who erected a high tower there. Bisignano is the ancient Besidias, or Besidianum, which in the eleventh century became the residence of a Norman count and later a fief of the Orsini. In 1467 Skan-
