DAMASUS
613
DAMASUS
churches. The Maronite diocese has 23,000 faithful,
Go priests, 61 churches, SO Baladite monks in 5 mon-
asteries, and 150 Alcppine monks in 6 monasteries.
There are in Damascus 14 churclies, of which 9 belong
to the different Catholic rites. There are also 14
synagogues and 1 Protestant church. The Lazarists,
who replaced the Jesuits at the time of their suppres-
sion, conduct a college with about 200 pupils. The
Jesuits have occupied since 1872 a house said to have
been that of St. John Damascene. The Franciscans
have the Latin parish church and a school for boys.
The Sisters of Charity ( 1854) have several schools, an
to come to Rome or its vicinity. The party of the
antipope (later at Milan .an adherent of the Arians and
to the end a contentious pretender) did not cease to
persecute Damasus. An accusation of adultery was
laid against him (378) in the imperial court, but he
was exonerated by Emperor Gratian himself (JVIansi,
Coll. Cone, III, 628) and soon after by a Roman synod
of forty-four bishops (Liber Pontificalis, ed. Du-
chesne, s. v.; Mansi, op. cit., Ill, 419) which also ex-
communicated his accusers.
Damasus defended with vigour the Catholic Faith in a time of dire and varied perils. In two Roman
orphanage, a dispensary, etc. The Mariamet native synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism
sisters conduct another school. The Catholic Greeks and Macedonianism ; he also sent his legates to the
have their schools for boj-s and girls. .\s to the Prot- Council of Constantinople (381), convoked against the
estants, the Anglo-
Syrians possess a hos-
pital and a school, the
American mission
and the Irish mission
each one school. The
Mussulmans have a
large municipal hos-
pital and a leper's
hospital.
Von Schubert, Reisc 171 rfrt.s Morgcnland (Er- lannen, 1840). Ill, 276- 304; Wilson. The Lnnth of Ihc Bible (Edinbumli. 1647). II. 325-369: -
Fit
Dn-
(London, 1871);
UoBlNSO.v. Biblical lie-
searches in Palestine (Lon-
don, 1856), III, 443-472;
Sketzen, Reisen dure/t
Syria (Berlin, 1854), I,
264-2S5; Thomson. The
Land and the Book (Lon-
don. 1SS6),III. 361-117;
LoKTET. La Syrie d'aii-
jourd'hui in Lc tour du
monde, XLIV, 358-384;
Gt'EKlN. La Terrf-Sainlc
(Paris, 1882). I, 383-420;
Sauvairp, Description de
Damas in Journed asia-
tiqiie, years 1894, 1895,
1896; MEISTER.MAXN,
\oitveau guide de Terre Sninte (Paris. 1907), 443- 463; Legendre, s. v. in Iheldela Bible. 11.1213-
12:^1; CflNET, <l/rir.
I.tinn rl Palestine (Paris. IMIM. 300-407; Jullikn. Lrt tioiivelle mission de la c. de J. en Syrie. (Paris, 1899). II, 13.5-144; Mis- ttiones catholicec (Rome, 1907), 780, 804, 817.
S. Vailhe.
Damasus I, S.mnt, Pope,!), about 304; d. 1 1 December, 384. His father, Antonius,
Pope St. Damasus I
iLuKgie di Uaffaelle, Vatican. Designed by Kaijliael)
probably a Spaniard;
the name of his mother, Laurentia, w;is not known
until quite recently. Damasus seems to have been
born at Rome; it is certain that he grew up there in
the service of the church of the martyr St. Lau- secure the succession for Paulinus and to exclude
aforesaid heresies. In
the Roman synod of
3(39 (or 370) Auxen-
tius, the ."Vrian Bishop
of Milan, was excom-
municated ; he held
the see, however,
\mtilhisdeath,in 374,
made way for St. Am-
brose. The heretic
Priscillian, con-
demned by the Coim-
cil of Saragossa (380)
appealed to Damasus,
but in vain. It was
Damasus who induced
Saint Jerome to un-
dertake his famous
revision of the earlier
Latin versions of the
Bible (see Vulgate).
St. Jerome was also
his confidential secre-
tary for some time
(Ep. cxxiii, n. 10).
An important Canon
of the New Testa-
ment was proclaimed
by him in the Roman
synod of 374. The
Eastern Church, in
the person of St. Basil
of Ccesarea, besought
earnestly the aid and
encouragement of Da-
masus against trium-
phant Arianism ; the
pope, however, cher-
ished some degree of
suspicion against the
great Cappadocian
Doctor. In the matter
of the M e 1 e t i a n
Schism at Antioch, Dama.sus, with .■Vthanasius and
Peter of Alexandria, sym|iatliized with the party of
Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene
orthodoxy; on the death of .Meletius he sought to
rence. He was elected pope in October, 366, by a
large majority, but a number of over-zealous adher-
ents of the deceased Liberius rejected him, chose the
deacon LTrsinus (or I'rsicinus), had the latter irregu-
larly con.secrated, and re-sorted to much violence ami
blodiLshed in order to se;it him in the Chair of Peter.
Many details of this scandalous conflict are related in
the highly prejudiced "Libellus Prccum" (P. L.,
XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the
part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan
presbyters (cf. also .\mmianus Marcellinus. Rer.
Ge.st.. XXVII, c. iii). Valentinian recognized Dama-
sus and banished (367) I'rsinus to Cologne, whence he
Flavian (Socrates, Hist. Eccl., V, xv). Ho sustained
the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gra-
ti;in for the removal of the altar of Victory from the
Senate House (.\mbro.se, Ep. xvii, n. 10), and lived
to welcome the f;mious edict of Theodosius I, "De
fi.lc Catholica" (27 Feb., .380), which proclaimed as
the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which
St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which
Damasus was supreme head (Cod. Theod., XVI,
1, 2).
When, in 379, Illyricum was detached from the Western Empire, D;ima.sus hastened to safeguard the authority of the Roman Church by the .appointment of
was later allowed to return to Milan, but was forbidden a vicar Apostolic in the person of .iVscholius, Bishop of
