Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/580

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CENACLE


518


CENACLE


beginning of his career and yet of value for catacomb re- '('■irclies, are his De Christianis monumentis i\»ye erhibentibus, in Spicileg. Solesm. (Paris, 1855), III, 544-77; De Christianis titulis Carthaginen. (ibid.), 505-538.

The Jesuit writer, Raffaele Garrucci, deserves an hon- ourable mention for his voluminous (6 large folios) and learned work that deals largely with the catacombs, Storia deli arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli dclla Chiesa (Prato, 1S73-80), with numerous illustrations. — The writings of De Rossi, espe- cially his Roma soltcrranea, soon gave rise to a number of adap- tations in various European languages; one of the most useful and reliable is that of Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea, or an Account of the Roman Catacomb*, especially of the Cemetery of St . Callistus (London, 1S69; 2d ed. 1878-79), published also in briefer form. Quite similar are the German work (same title) of Kraus (Freiburg, 1873 ; 2nd ed. 1879), and the French manual of Reusens, Elements d'archeologie chre- tienne (Louvain, 1871-75; 2nd ed., 1885).

The constant activity of excavation, literary research, and criticism, creates as constant a demand for newer manuals of the science which has thus grown up; among the later works of this kind we may mention with praise; Armellini, Lezioni di archeologia sacra (Rome, 1898); Idem, Gli antiehi cimiteri enstmni di Roma e d' Italia (Rome. 1893); Marucchi, Les ele- ments d'archeologie chrctienne (Paris, 1902-1905, 3 vols.); Kaufmans, Handbuch dec chrisllichen Archdologie (Paderborn, 190.5; an Italian tr., Manuale di archeologia cristiana (Rome, 1907); Leclercq. Manuel d'archeologie chrctienne depuis les origines jusqu'au VIII' siccle (3 vols., Paris. 19071, the latter being a resume of the rich materials of the new Benedictine dictionary of Christian archa?ology quoted below. Among later English works similar in intention, if not equal in exe- cution, are: Cheetham, History of Early Christian Art (New- York, 1895), and the praiseworthy summary of Lowrie, Chris- tian Art and Archirologu (London, 1901).

The natural desire to obtain some easy control over the enormous mass of facts and opinions that all these labours developed led soon to the creation of illustrated encyclopedias of Christian antiquities, all of which are useful beyond expres- sion for the study of the catacombs. The first of these, based on De Rossi's work, was Martigny, Diet, des antiquites chre- tiennes (Paris, 1S05; 3d ed., 1889). It was followed by a good English (non-Catholic i compilation of the same nature, Smith and Cheetham, .4 Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (London, 1876-80), and shortly by the German (Catholic) work edited by Kraus, Rcalenzyklopadie d. christl. Alterthiimer (Freiburg, 1882-86), now out of print and rare. In the mean time the French Benedictines of Farnborough, England (Cabrol chief editor) have begun a very exhaustive encyclopedia of both Christian archaeology and liturgy under the title of Diet. d'areheol. chret. el de lilurgie (Paris, 1903 sqq.). — Among the French disciples of De Rossi who contributed most to spread the principles and methods of the new catacomb excavations may he mentioned Le Blant, Inscriptions ehretiennes de la Gaule (Paris. 185(3-65), and Nouveau recueil des inscriptions, etc. (ibid., 1892); Idem, Etudes sur les sarcophages chrclicns antiques de la ville d' Aries (Paris, 18781, Les sarcophages Chre- tiens de la Gaule (ibid., 1S86), and other important works. — Easily foremost, however, among the scientific students of the Roman catacombs is Monsignore Joseph Wilpert, whose accurate reproduction of the originals of the catacomb frescoes has placed before all scholars reliable copies of these famous relics of ancient Christian life, and enables everyone to study them scientifically and at his ease: Wilpert. Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms (Freiburg, 1903, 2 folio volumes, 596 pages of text, 267 plates and 54 figures, published also in Italian as Pitture delle Catacombc romane, same place and date). He had previously published a number of valuable researches, both patristic and archa?ological in content; among them: Prinzipienfragen der ehrislliehen Archdologie (Freiburg, 18S9, with supplement, ibid., 1890); Die gollgciceihten Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahrhunderten der Kirrhe (ibid., 1S92); Ein Cyklus christologischer Gemdlde, etc. (ibid., 1891); Fractio Panis, die dlteste Darstellung des eucharistisehen Opfers (ibid., 1S95); Die Malereien in der Sakramenlskapelle i. d. Katak. des hi. Callistus (ibid., 1897). — Among the scholarly Protestant writers on the catacombs the following deserve credit: Piper, Einleilung in die memumentale Theologie (Gotha, 1867); Muller, Archao- logische Studien, etc. (Leipzig, 1895-1901). and since 1902, as Studien uber chrisllichc Dcnkmdler, particularly his articles in the Rcalenzyklopadie f. prot. Theologie u. Kirche, on Koimeterien, Christusbilder , and Inschriften; Schultze, Die Katakomben (Leipzig, 1882), Der theologisehe Erlrag der Kalakombcnfor- schung (ibid., 1882), Die altchristlichcn Bildwerke, etc. (ibid., 1889); and Archdologie der allchrisllichen Kunst (Munich, 1895). Important for the study of the catacombs, their excavations, history, problems, sources, literature, etc., are the above-men- tioned official Xuorn Hullettino, the Christian archaeological bulletin of the Ci cilia Cattoliea by Ghisar, the Comptes rendusoi Kirsch in the RnmisehcQuartalschrift fur chrislliche Altcrthums- kunde (Freiburg and Home), conducted, for the archaeological content, by Mgk, Db WAAL to which may be added the Orient Christianus, conducted byA.BAUMSTABK(CampoSantoTede8CO, or German College, Rome), a useful repository of arclueolo- gical information from the Christian Orient Here it may not be out of place to mention the merits of (he Roman asso- ciation known as the " Collegium Cultorum martyrum", espe- cially devoted to the veneration of the holy martyrs and the sites of their sepulchres, and the Christian Archieologieal Con- gresses of 1891 and 1900. The American Journal of Arrhar- olomi (Baltimore, 1885 sqq.) also devotes attention to the results of catacomb studies and researches. — It is easily un- dertood that the researches in every field of early Christian


antiquities throw light on the catacombs and in turn are helped by the special researches in these cemeteries; hence the im- portance of the remarkable discoveries of Pf.re Delattre of the Peres Blancs on the site of ancient Carthage (for a bibliog- raphy of his writings see Le Musce Larigerie de Saint-Louis de Carthage (Tunis, 1900); cf. Damon, Catalogue of Early Chris- tian Antiquities, etc., in the British Museum (London, 1901). Similarly it is of interest to know the sources of the early art-impulses among the Roman Christians, attributed mostly to the Orient (Egypt, Syria, Palestine), by Stezygowski, Orient odcr Rom (Leipzig, 1901), Kleinasien (ibid., 1903). Finally it may be useful to add that any serious study of the catacombs demands some acquaintance with the excellent introductory pages of the above-mentioned manuals of Ivauf- mann, Marucchi, or Leclercq, also with the earlier volumes of the histories of the City of Rome bv the Catholic writers Von Reumont (Berlin, 1867), and Grisar (Rome, 1900. I. unfinished): and the non-Catholic Gregorovius (Eng. tr.), to which must be added the excellent introduction and notes of the critical edition of the Liber Pontificalis (2 vols., 4°, Paris, 1886, 1892), by Mgr. Louis Duchesne.

Thomas J. Shahan.

Cenacle. See Last Supper.

Cenacle, Religious of the. — The Society of Our Lady of the Cenacle was founded in 1826, at La Louvesc in France, near the tomb of St. John Francis Regis, the Jesuit apostle of the poor, by Jean-Pierre- Etienne Terme, a holy and zealous missionary priest of the Diocese of Viviers, and Marie-Victoire-Therese Couderc, a woman twenty years of age, but already mature in courage, energy, and the living resources of faith. Desirous to attract pilgrims to the tomb of St. John Francis Regis, and induce them to there recollect themselves in solitude, prayer, and medi- tation, they resolved to open houses where women might follow the exercises of a retreat; the first of those houses was opened at La Louvesc. Father Terme was not to see the full development of his work; he died in 1834, leaving his religious family to the direction of the Jesuit Fathers. Encouraged by episcopal authority, and then by Popes Gregory XVI, Pius IX, and Leo XIII, the last of whom definitely approved its constitutions, the new in- stitute grew rapidly and soon counted houses in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland. In England, the first house was opened at Manchester, in 1888. The year 1892 saw the first foundation in America, at New York.

The Society of Our Lady of the Cenacle honours particularly, and proposes to itself for its model, the retirement of the Blessed Virgin in the Cenacle, after the Ascension of our Lord, while the whole Church, expecting the Holy Ghost, "were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus" (Acts, i, 14). The religious of this society aim, first, at their own personal sanctifica- tion; secondly, at procuring the salvation and per- fection of their neighbour. It is this twofold end that they endeavour to attain by the invisible apostolate of perpetual prayer, the recitation of the Divine Office, and the daily Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as by the exercise of exterior forms of apos- tolate, principally in providing for spiritual retreats and the teaching of Christian doctrine.

The houses of the society are open at any time to women of all classes wishing to make the Spiritual Exercises, that is, to apply themselves for a few days to the consideration of the truths of faith, to recol- lection and prayer, either in order to make a choice for the disposition of their future life, or because they fool it necessary to regulate their lives in a more Christian manner. From its origin, the Bociety has taken up the teaching of Christian doctrine as a powerful means of apostolate, and receives all persons who are desirous to [earn the truths of faith, so as to dispose themselves I'm- the reception of the sacraments, also all who are preparing to outer the Catholic Church, or who, after their return to God,

seek to strengthen themselves in faith and piety. Other

moans used are the day's retreat, associations, etc.: in fact , all offices of spiritual charity proper to extend