Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/688

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DAMAO


610


DAMARALAND


become generally known to English readers. On the erection of the Diocese of Northampton, in 1854, he was made a member of the chapter, and lived many years at Bishop's House in that city. In order to ac- quire a first-hand acquaintance with the Spanish lit- erature pertaining to the life of the foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, he spent nine months diu-ing the years 1858-59 at the English College, Valladolid. On his return to England he settled at St. John's, Madder- market, Norwich, where he ended his days. Canon Dalton is described by contemporary writers as most amiable, zealous, and charitable, and a favourite with all creeds and classes. Among his numerous works translated from the Spanish are the following: "Life of St. Teresa" (London, 1851); "The Interior Castle, or the Mansions" (London, 1852-53); "The Way of Perfection" (London, 1852); "The Letters of St. Teresa" (London, 1853); "The Book of the Founda- tions" (London, 1853), etc. He also published trans- lations from Latin and German, including "The Life of Cardinal Ximenes " from the German of Bishop Von Hefeie (London, 1860).

GiLLOw. BM. Did. Enq. Cath. (London, 1S87) s. v.; Weekly Register, 28 Feb., 1874; Contemporary newspapers.

\V. H. Grattan-Flood.

Damao (D.vmau, Daiiaun), Diocese of, suffragan to Goa, and situated in Portuguese India and the British Government of Bombay, was erected by the Bull "Humanae Salutis" of Leo XIII, 1 September,

1886, which confirmed the concordat then entered into between the Holy See and Dom Luis I, Iving of Portugal. This concordat effected a settlement of the opposmg claims to jurisdiction in India of the Metropolitan of Goa, on the one part, and the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, on the other (see P.\D- ROADo). A pontifical decree, dated 14 March, 1887, confirmed the nomination by the King of Portugal of Dom Antonio Pedro da Costa to be first Bishop of Damao with the titular Archbishopric of Cranganor, and that prelate took possession of his see 19 June,

1887. The church of Bom Jesus, at Damao, then be- came the cathedral of the new diocese.

The city of Damao, on the Arabian Sea, at the mouth of the Damao River, about 100 miles north of Bombay, formerly belonged to the Mohammedan State cf Guzerat. It first came to the notice of the Portuguese in 1523, when Diogo de Mello, overtaken by a storm on his way to Ormuz, took refuge in the harbour. In 1529 an expedition sent by Dora Nuno da Cunha, the Portuguese viceroy, sacked and burned the city, and in 1541 da Cunlia himself, on his way to the conquest of Diu, disembarked his whole army at Damao and caused Mass to be celebrated there for the first time. But it was not until the feast of the Puri- fication in the year 1558 that another viceroy, Dom Constantino de Braganza, undertook to acquire finally the place for his sovereign; the native garrison, al- though much more numerous than the attacking force of 3000, fled at their approach, and the capture was effected without bloodshed. The victorious com- mander at once caused a mosque to be prepared for Christian worship; Father Gonsalo da Silveira, Pro- vincial of the Jesuits, celebrated Mass there, and the mosque became the Jesuit church of Sao Paulo. From that time imtil its erection as a suffragan dio- cese, in 1886, Damao belonged to the Archdiocese of Goa.

The territory of the diocese extends along the shores of the Arabian Sea from the Narbada River, on the north, to Ratnagiri, on the south, and is bounded on the east by the Western Ghats. There are 71,000 C'atholics in the diocese, 51 churches, 21 affiliated chapels, and about 85 priests. The stipends of the clergy are for the most part paid by the Portuguese Government. The territory is divided into districts as follows: Damao, 4 churches, 5 affiliated chapels;


Diu, 2 churches, 3 chapels; Thana (\'icariate), 25 churches, 6 chapels; Konkan, 2 churches, 1 chapel; Bassein, 12 churches, 1 chapel; Bombay, 6 churches, 5 chapels. To each of the churches of this diocese a parisli school is attached, where instruction is given in C'atholic doctrhie, music, English, and Portuguese, as well as, in some instances, Guzerati and Mahratti. Some of these schools receive subsidies from both the Portuguese and the British-Indian Governments. The spiritual work of the tliocese is very largely helped by means of confraternities, of which there are at least 42 in the Vicariate of Thana alone.

Among the churches in the city of Damao the cathe- dral of Bom Jesus is worthy of note as having been built, in 1559, on the site of an old mosque. At Damao Pequeno (Little Damao) the church of Nossa Senhora do Mar, founded in 1701, in the old fortress, is still used by local Catholics. Another fortress church is that of the Coneeigao at Diu, which was originally built in 1610 as part of the now extmct convent of Sao Paulo. The vicariate of Thana mcludes the island of vSalsette, of which Thana it"elf was formerly the capi- tal. Here, before the Mogul invasion of 1318, a com- mimity of Nestorians existed. The conquering Mo- hammedans converted both the Nestorian churches and the Hindu temples into mosques for their own worship. It was also at Thana that the Franciscan missionaries Thomas of Tolentino and Giacomo of Padua, with the lay brothers Demetrius and Peter, were martyred early in the fourteenth century. Fra Jordanus, a Dominican, who buried the bodies of these martyrs, was himself also martjTed by the Mo- hammedans, l)Ut the Hindus of the vicinity so highly venerated his memory as to set up a bronze statue of him among the gods in one of their temples; this tem- ple was afterwards destroyed, and in the sixteenth century some workmen who were digging on the spot found among the ruins this pagan tribute to a Chris- tian martyr. Thana was also the field of the fruitful labours of Father Gonsalo Rodrigues, one of the com- panions of St. Francis Xavier, who foimded in the neighbourhood a Cliristian village. This village was destroyed by the Mahrattas, but the ruins of its church, college, and orphanage are still distinguish- able. The cliurch of Nossa Senhora do Carmo at Chaid, in the Konkan district, dates from the year 1580. Bassein, first acquired by Portugal m 1534, is memorable for the martjTdom of five religious burned I alive in the orphanage by the Mahommedan invaders! in 1540, as well as for the apostolic visits of St. Francis j) Xavier. Lastly, in the Mazagon suburb of Bombay ie the church of Nossa Senhora da Gloria, long regarded locally as the Portuguese cathedral; here also is the Bombay residence of the Bishop of Damao, Titulai Archbishop of Cranganor.

De Britto, Esboco Historico de Damao; Correa, Lcn da India, II; Webn-er, Orbis Ttrrarum Calh. (Freiburg im ] 1890).

J. GODINHO

Damaraland, the middle part of the German col- ony, (iennan Sciutliwest Africa, between 19° and 23' S. hit., 14° and -'0° K. long. Moving from the Atlan tic coast towards the interior the traveller meets fijB' a sand-belt of forty-two miles, stripped of all vegeta h tion and covered with gigantic sand-dunes; then i r strip of desert land about ninety miles broad, witlli rugged, bare movmtains and wide, barren sand-plainsl Then follows Hercroland proper, which rises to height of 7000 feet, and in which mountain ranges and solitary peaks succeed long-drawn valleys, deep rav ines ani.1 high plateaux. Towards the north and east! this mountainous district passes over into the undul lating plain of the Omaheke and the Kalahari Deserll which is crossed by dry river-beds and is sparsely ir| habited. In general, the country suffers from want c rain; it is arid, and lit for cattle-raising only; aL;r culture is hardly possible except where the land