Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/436

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
378

GAP


378


GARCIA


Gap, Diocese op (Vapincensis), suffragan of Aix, includes the department of the Hautes-Alpes. Sup- l)ressed by the Concordat of 1801 and then united to Digne, this diocese was re-estabhshed in 1822 and comprises, besides the ancient Diocese of Gap, a large part of the ancient Diocese of Embrun. The name of this last metropolitan see, however, has been absorbed in the title of the Archbishop of Aix.

Diocese of Gap. — Ancient traditions in liturgical books, of which at least one dates from the fourteenth century, state that the first Bishop of Gap was St. De- metrius, disciple of the Apostles and martyrs. Father Victor de Buck in the Acta Sanctorum (October, XI) finds nothing inadmissible in these traditions, while Canon Albanes defends them against M. Roman. Al- banes names as bishops of Gap the martyr St. Tigris (fourth century), then St. Remedius (394-419), whom the Abb^ Duchesne makes a Bishop of Antibes and who was involved in the struggle between Pope Zosimus and Bishop Proculus of Marseilles, finally St. Con-itantmus about 439. According to Duchesne the first historically known bishop is Constantinus, pres-


=,^1


•■ - ■*'J'^


ent at the Council of Epaone in 517. The church of Gap had, among other bishops, St. Aregius (or Arey, 579-GlO?), who established at Gap a celebrated liter- ary school and was held in great esteem by St. Gregory the Great; also St. Arnoude (1065-1078), a monk of Trinity de Vendome, named bishop by Alexander II to replace the sinioniac Ripert, and who became the patron of the epi-scopal city.

Archdiocese op Embrun. — The Archdiocese of Embrun had as suffragans, Digne, Antibes and Grasse, Vence, Glandeves, Senez, and Nice. Tradi- tion ascribes the evangelization of Embrun to Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, martyrs under Nero. The first bishop was St. Marcellinus (354-74). Other bishops of Embrun were St. Albinus (400-37) ; St. Palladius ( first half of the sixth century) ; St. Eutherius (middle of the seventh century); St. James (eighth century); St. Alphonsus (eighth century); St. Marcellus (end of the eighth century), whom Charlemagne sent to evan- gelize Saxony; St. Bernard (805-25), under whose episcopate Charlemagne enriched the Diocese of Em- brun; St. Benedict (beginning of the tenth century), martyred by the Saracen invaders; St. Liberalis (920- 40); St.Hismide (1027-45); St. Guillaume (1120-34), founder of the celebrated Abbey of Boscodon ; St. Ber- nard Chabert (1213-35), Henry of Segusio (1250-71), known as Ostiensis, i.e. Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, an orator and canonist of renown; the Dominican Rai- mond of M^volhon (1289-94), who defended the doc- trine of St. Thomas against the attacks of English theologians; Bertrand of Deaux (1323-38), who as the legate of Clement VI at Rome did much to bring about the downfall of Rienzi ; Jacques G^lu ( 1427-32), one of


the first prelates to recognize the supernatural voca- tion of Joan of Arc; Giulio de' Medici (1510-11), later pope under the name of Clement VII; Cardinal Fran- (,-ois de Tournon (1517-26), employed on diplomatic mi.ssions by Francis I, and founder of the College de Tournon; Cardinal de Tencin (1724-40), who in Sep- tember, 1727, caused the condemnation by the Council of Embrun of the Jansenist Soanen, Bishop of his suf- fragan See of Senez. St. Vincent Ferrer preached sev- eral missions against the Vaudois in the Diocese of Em- brun. Besides the bishops named the following are honoured as saints in the present Diocese of Gap: Vin- cent, Orontius, and Victor, martyrs in Spain in the fourth century, the anchorite Veranus (sixth century), afterwards Bishop of Cavaillon, and the anchorite St. Donatus (sixth century).

The Diocese of Gap posses.ses two noted places of pilgrimage, Notre-Dame d 'Embrun at Embrun, where ('harlemagne erected a basilica, visited by Pope Leo III and Kings Henry II and Louis XVIII. Louis XI was wont to wear in his cap a leaden image of Notre- Dame d'Embrun. The other is that of Notre-Dame du Laus, where during fifty-four years (1664-1718) the blessed Virgin appeared "an incalculable number of times" to a shepherdess. Venerable Benoite Rencurel. Three orders of women had their origin in the diocese. The Sisters of Providence, a teaching and nursing or- der, established in 1823 from the Sisters of Portieux (Vosges) and after 1837 an independent congregation; the Sisters of Saint Joseph, founded in 1837 for teaching and nursing; the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, founded in 1835 for teaching. The Diocese of Gap, numbering 109,510 inhabitants, had in 1906 at the cessation of the Concordat, 26 parishes, 218 missions, and 15 curacies, paid by the state. During the Middle Ages there were in the mountainous region which forms the present diocese more than seventy hospitals, maladreries, lazarettoes, or houses of refuge, administered by two congregations of the vicinity, the Brothers of La Madeleine and the Brothers of Holy Penitence. About half of these asylums disappeared during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. The others with the exception of half a score were sup- pressed by royal command about 1690, and their goods given to the large hospitals of Gap, Embrun, and Bri- angon. In 1900, before the Law of Associations was enforced, there were in the Diocese of Gap five ma- ternity hospitals, a school for deaf mutes, one orphan- age for boys and two for girls, seven hospitals or asy- lums, two institutions for the care of the sick in their homes, all under the direction of religious orders.

. Gallia Christiana (Nova, 1715), I, 452-473, Instrumenia, 86- 89; (Nova, 1725), III, 1051-1107; Inslrumenta, 177-188. 205- 8; Albanes, Gallia Christiana Novissima (Montb^Iiard, 1899), I; Deperv. Histoire hagiologique du diocHe de Gap (Gap, 1852); FisQUET, France Pontificale (Paris, 1368); G.^illaud, Histoire de Notre Dame d'Embrun (Gap, 1862); Roman, Sigillographie du dioctse de Gap (Grenoble, 1870); Idem, Tableau hisforique du departement des Hautes-Alpes (Pari.'*. 1889-91); Chevalier, 7*0- po-bibl., pp. 988, 1266.

Georges Goyau.

Garcia, Anne, better known as Venerable Anne of St. Bartholomew, Discalced Carmelite nun, companion of St. Teresa; b. at Alraendral, Old Castile, 1 Oct., 1550; d. at Antwerp, 7 June, 1626. She was of hum- ble origin and spent her youth in solitude and prayer tending the flocks. When she first went to Avila to enter the Carmelite convent, she was refused, being too young ; for several years after, she suffered much at the hands of her brothers. Finally, overcoming all obsta- cles, she entered the convent as lay sister and made her vows on 15 August, 1572. For the next ten years she filled the post of infirmarian; her spirit of prayer and humility endeared her to St. Teresa, whose almost in.separable companion and secretary she now became. St. Teresa died in her arms at Alba <5e Tormes in 1582. Anne afterwards returned to Avila, took part in the foundation of a convent at Ocaiia (1595), and was one