Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/397

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VENTIMIGLIA


343


VENTURA


Romans, who made it a Latin colony. It resisted Hannibal in the Punic War, and during the Civil War was stormed by Metellus. It was flourishing as late as the fourth century, .\mong its antiquities is a Jewish cemetery. The earliest events at Venoza are the martyrdoms of the Twelve Brothers (2S0) and of Felix, Bishop of Tabara in Africa, and his companions (.303). Stephanus (49.S) is the first Bishop of Venoza whose date is known accurately. The names of other bishops up to the Norman conquest have not been preserved. Buono (1223) was assassinated by a cleric; Lamberto Arbaudo (1,509) embellished the cathedral, which was demolished a little later to permit the erection of fortifications. In 1818 the See of Lavello, suffragan to Bari, founded in 1042 when the Norman count Arnichino fixed his seat at Lavello, was united to Venosa. The diocese is suffra- gan to Acerenza and contains 8 parishes, 48,300 inhabitants, 54 secular priests, and 2 convents of nuns.

Cappelletti. Le chiese d'Ttalia, XX; Cimagua, Antiquilates venusinct (Naples. 1757); DE Lorenzo. Venosa e la regione del Vullure in Italia arttstica (Bergamo. 1906).

U. Benigni.

Ventimiglia, Diocese of (Ventimiliensis), in the Province of Porto Maurizio, northern Italy. The city is situated on the CJulf of Genoa, having a small harbour at the mouth of the Roia. It contains a fine cathedral with a fifth-century baptistery. The Church of S. Michele is erected on the foundations of a pagan temple. Some antiquities are collected in the town hall. Ventimiglia is the ancient Albium Inte- melium, the capital of the Intemelii, a Ligurian tribe which long resisted the Romans, but was forced in 115 B. c. to submit to Scaurus. In a. d. 60 the city was sacked by the army of Otho and Vitellius. In the Gothic war it was besieged by the Byzantines and the Goths, and suffered from the raids of Rotharis, King of the Lombards, but flourished again under King Rodoaldo. In the tenth century it was at- tacked by the Saracens of Frassineto. Berengarius made his son Conrad first Count of Ventimiglia. In 1139 the Genoese attacked it by land and sea and forced it to surrender; the count continued to hold the city and counlship as a va.ssal of the victors. The


It is probable that it had a bishop from the fifth century; the first known is .Joannes ((ISO), .\monghis successors were : Cardinal .\ntonio Pallavicino (14S4) and Alessandro Frego.so, both more distinguished as warriors than as clerics; Filippo de' Mari (1519), who


city rebelled more than once against the Genoese and sided with their enemies. It was thus temporarilv held by the dukes of Savoy (1389 and 174(1) and Ladislas, King of Naples (14i0). In general it shared the fortunes of Genoa. The most ancient Christian mention of Ventimiglia is the alleged preaching of Sts. Marcellinus (Bishop of Embrun), Vincentius, and Dominus (fourth century).


restored ec'clesiastical discipline; Carlo Visconti (15()1), later a cardinal; Carlo Grimaldo (1.565), who distinguished him.self at the Council of Trent; Giro- lamo Curio (1614), who died by poi-son in Corsica, whither he had been .sent as commissary Apostolic; Gianfrancesco Gandolfi (1622), who negotiated the peace between Savoy and Genoa; Antonio Maria Bacigaluppi (1773), who converted the episcopal resi- dence into a seminary. The diocese, which has been suffragan to Genoa since 1775, contains 65 parishes, 96,000 inhabitants, 2.50 secular and regular priests, 6 houses of religious men, 37 convents of nuns, 3 edu- cational institutions for boys, and 10 for girls. There are 4 rehgious ])criiiciic;tls |)ul)lishcd in the diocese.

Cappelletti./,' (7,i.., .fluiha: liossi, titurtn ildln cilia di Ventimiglia (Uncglia, ISSh;; Savio, I cuiitidi Vmlunialia (Genoa, 1S94).

U. Benigni.

Ventura di Raulica, Gioacchino, Italian pulpit orator, i)atriiil, iiliilo.sojiher, b. at Palermo, 8 Dec, 1792; d. al Versailles, 2 Aug., 1861. He entered the Society of .Jesus in 180S, and in 1817, when the Society was suppressed in Sicily, joined the Theatines. Or- dained a priest, he distinguished himself as a Catholic journalist and apologist, as a jireacher, especially by his "Funeral Oration of Pius VII" (1823), as an exjjo- ncnt of the systems of de Lamennais, de Maistre, and de Bonald. He was ajipointed by Leo XII professor of canon law at the Sapienza, and in 1830 Wiis elected Superior-(;eneral of the Theatines. He published his "De methodo philosophandi" in 1828 and "Bellezze della Fede " in 18.39. After his generalship (l,S:j0-33) he preached in Rome. His eloquence, though some- w-hat exaggerated and prolix, was vehement and direct, with a nolile bearing, a magnificent voice, and an affecting delivery, and it won him great renown. In Paris, though not perfectly ma.ster of French, he almost rivalled Lacordaire. With the accession of Pius IX, Vent lira became politically prominent. His "Funeral Oration of O'Connell" ("1847) glorified the union of religion and liberty. His eulogy of liberty on the "Morti di Vienna" .sounded almost like a dia- tribe against kings in general. It was put on the In- dex; the author nobly submitted.

Ventura niaintaineil the lawfulnes-s of the Sicilian Revolution (cf. his "Sul riconoscimento della Sicilia,