Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/82

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SMITH


60


SNORRI


II (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1737-42); Gairdner, Letlert and Papers of Henry VIII; Cooper, Did. Nat. Biog., a. v.

Edwin BDBTO>f.

Smith, Thomas Kilbt, b. at Boston, Mass., 23 Sept., 1820; d. at New York, 14 Dec, 1887; eldest son of Captain George Smith and Eliza Bicker Walter. Both his paternal and maternal forefathers were active and prominent in the professional life and in the government of New England. His parents moved to Cincinnati in his early childhood, where he was educated in a military school under O. M. Mitohel, the astronomer, and studied law in the office of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. In 1853 he was appointed special agent in the Post Office Department at Washington, and later marshal for the Southern Dis- trict of Ohio and deputy clerk of Hamilton County. He entered the Union Army, 9 September, 1861, as lieutenant-colonel, and was conspicuous in the Battle of Shiloh, 6 and 7 April, 1862, assuming com- mand of Stuart's Brigade, Sherman's Division, during the second day. As commander of brigade in the loth and 17th Army Corps, he participated in all the campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee, being also for some months on staff duty with General Grant.

Commissioned Brigadier-General of Volunteers, 11 August, 1863, he was assigned on 7 March, 1864, to the command of the detached division of the 17th Army Corps and rendered distinguished service during the Red River E.xpedition, protecting Admiral Porter's fleet after the disaster of the main army. After the fall of Mobile, he assumed the command of the Department of Southern Alabama and Florida, and then of the Post and District of Maine. He was brevetted Major-General for gallant and meritorious service. In 1866 President Johnson appointed him United States Consul at Panama. After the war he removed to Torresdale, Philadelphia. At the time of his death he was engaged in journalism in New York. On 2 May, 1848, he married Elizabeth Budd, daughter of Dr. William Budd McCullough and Arabella Sanders Piatt, of Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a gifted and devout woman, and tlu-ough her influence and that of the venerable Archbishop Purcell he became a Catholic some years before his death. He was remarkable for his facUity of expression, distinguished personal ajjpearance, and courtly bearing. He left five sons and three daughters. Smith, Life and Letters of Thomas Kilby Smith (New York, 1898).

Walter George Smith.

Smyrna, Latin Archdiocese of (Smtrnensis), in Asia Minor. The city of Smyrna rises like an amphitheatre on the gulf which bears its name. It is the capital of the vilayet of Aidin and the starting- point of several railways; it has a population of at least 300,000, of whom 1.50,000 are Greeks. There are also numerous Jews and Armenians and almost 10,000 European Catholics. It was founded more than 1000 years b. c. by colonists from Lesbos who had cxjielled the Leleges, at a place now called Roumabat, about an hour's distance from the pres- ent Smyrna. Shortly before 688 b. c. it was captured by the lonians, under whose rule it became a very rich and powerful city (Herodotus, I, 150). About 580 B. c. it was destroyed by Alyattes, King of Lydia. Nearly 300 years afterwards "Antigonus (323-301 B. c), and then Lysimachus, undertook to rebuild it on its present site. Subsequently comprised in the Kingdom of Pergamus, it was ceded in 133 n. c. to the Romans. These built there a judiciary convenlus and a mint. Smyrna had a colebraterl school of rhet- oric, was one of the cit ies which li.id the title of metrop- olis, and in which the connliiim fealinim of Asia was celebrated. Demolished by an earthquake in A. u. 178 and 180, it was rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. In 673 it was captured by a fleet of Arab Mussulmans.


Under the inspiration of Clement VI the Latins cap- tured it from the Mussulmans in 1344 and held it until 1402, when Tamerlane destroyed it after slaying the inhabitants. In 1424 the Turks captured it and, save for a brief occupation by the Venetians in 1472, it has since belonged to them.

Christianity was preached to the inhabitants at an early date. As early as the year 93, there existed a Christian community directed by a bishop for whom St. John in the Apocalypse (i, 11; ii, 8-11) has only words of praise. There are extant two letters written early in the second century from Troas by St. Ignatius of Antioch to those of Smyrna and to Poly- carp, their bishop. Through these letters and those of the Christians of Smyrna to the city of Philome- lium, we know of two ladies of high rank who be- longed to the Church of Smyrna. There were other Christians in the vicinity of the city and dependent on it to whom St. Polycarp [wrote letters (Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", V, xxiv). When Polycarp was mar- tyred (23 Feb.), the Church of Smyrna sent an encyclical concerning his death to the Church of Phi- lomeUum and others. The "Vita Poly carpi" attrib- uted to St. Pionius, a priest of Smyrna martyred in 250, contains a Ust of the fu'st bishops: Stratss; Bucolus; Polycarp; Papirius; Camerius; Eudaemon (250), who apostatized during the persecution of De- cius; Thraseas of Eumenia, martyr, who was buried at SmjTna. Noctos, a Modahst heretic of the second century, was a native of the city as were also Sts. Pothinus and Irenaeus of Lyons. Mention should also be made of another martyr, St. Dioscorides, vene- rated on 21 May. Among the Greek bishops, a Ust of whom appears in Le Quien, (Oriens Christ., I, 737- 46), was Metrophanes, the great opponent of Photius, who laboured in the revision of the "Octoekos", a Greek liturgical book.

The Latin See of Smyrna was created by Clement VI in 1346 and had an uninterrupted succession of titulars until the seventeenth century. This was the beginning of the Vicariate Apostolic of Asia Minor, or of Smyrna, of vast extent. In 1818 Pius VII estabUshed the Archdiocese of Smyrna, at the same time retaining the vicariate Apostolic, the jurisdiction of which was wider. Its limits were those of the vicariates Apostolic of Meso- potamia, Syria, and Constantinople. The archdio- cese had 17,000 Latin Cathohcs, some Greek Mel- chites, called Alepi, and Armenians under special organization. There are: 19 secular priests; 55 regu- lars; 8 parishes, of which 4 are in Smyrna; 14 churches with resident priests and 12 without priests; 25 pri- mary schools with 2500 pupils, 8 colleges or academies with 800 pupils; 2 hospitals; and 4 orphanages. The religious men in the archdiocese or the vicariate Apos- tolic are Franciscans, Capuchins, Lazarists, Domini- cans, Salesians of Don Bosco, Assumptionists (at Koniah), Brothers of the Christian Schools, and Marist Brothers (at Metellin). Rehgious communi- ties of women are the Carmelites, Sisters of Charity- (13 houses with more than 100 sisters), Sisters of Sion, IDominicans of Ivi-6e, Sisters of St. Joseph, and Ob- lates of the Assumption.

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geogr., s. v.; Hamiltok, Re- searches in Asia Minor, I (London, 1842), 44-95; Texier, Asie Mineure (Paris, 1862), 302-OS; Scherzer, Smyrna (Vienna. 1873); Ramsay, The LeUers lo !<•. ,s', , n .irrhes of Asia (Lon- don, 1904), 251-57; Geokgim" - ! 'iris, 1885): RouooN, Smyrne (Paris, 1892); Le Cam '/.^es de V Apocalypse (Paris, 1896); Fillio^j in Vk; /■ - lul.te. s. v.; Missiones Catholica (Rome, 19071. i."- ,: I ime-^kks. The Seven Stars of the Apocalypse i.\theu^ I'sivi, ; i . t. .k; Jkan-Baptiste deSaint- lAiRK^zo, Saint Pohi, : ■ :ii sur le Pagus. Notice sur

<• ri^Frff iS'mvrdc (Coii-iiiiiiii -1.1. I 'ID.

S. Vailh6.

Snorri Sturluson, historian, b. at Hvanimr, 1178; d. 1241. Snorri, who was the son of Sturla Thortsson (d. 1182), was the most important Ice- landic historian of the Middle Ages. In him were