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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Peter Snow

From volume 14 of the work.
English martyr, suffered at York, 15 June, 1598. He was born at or near Ripon and arrived at the English College, Reims, 17 April, 1589, receiving the first tonsure and minor orders 18 August, 1590, the subdiaconate at Laon on 22 September, and the diaconate and priesthood at Soissons on 30 and 31 March, 1591. He left for England on the following 15 May. He was arrested about 1 May, 1598, when on his way to York with Venerable Ralph Grimston of Nidd. Both were shortly after condemned, Snow of treason as being a priest and Grimston of felony, for having aided and assisted him, and, it is said, having attempted to prevent his apprehension.
John B. Wainewright.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. Miles Gerard

From volume 6 of the work.
Martyr; born about 1550 at Wigan; executed at Rochester 13 (30?) April, 1590. Sprung perhaps from the Gerards of Ince, he was, about 1576, tutor to the children of Squire Edward Tyldesley, at Morleys, Lancashire. Thence in 1579 he went to the seminaries of Douai and Reims, where he was ordained 7 April, 1583, and then stayed on as professor until 31 August, 1589 (O.S.), when he started for England with five companions. At Dunkirk the sailors refused to take more than two passengers; so the missioners tossed for precedence, and Gerard and Francis Dicconson, the eldest (it seems) and youngest of the party, won. Though bound for London, they were driven out of their course into Dover harbour, where they were examined and arrested on suspicion (24 November, N.S.). A contemporary newsletter says that they were wrecked, and escaped the sea only to fall into the hands of persecutors on shore, but this is not consistent with the official records. These show that the prisoners at first gave feigned names and ambiguous answers, but soon thought it better to confess all. After many tortures in the worst London prisons under the infamous Topcliffe, they were condemned as traitors, and "taken to Rochester, where they were hanged and quartered", says Father John Curry, S. J., writing shortly afterwards, "and gave a splendid testimony to the Catholic Faith".
J. H. POLLEN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Teuchira

From volume 14 of the work.
A titular see in Libyan Pentapolis. Teuchira (Teucheira) neuter plural, was a city on the coast of Cyrenaica, 200 statia west of Ptolemais. It was celebrated for its worship of Cybele, in whose honour annual festivals were held. During the reign of the Ptolemies it was called Arsinoë; at a later period it became a Roman colony, and was garrisoned by Justinian. The ruins are called Tokra (vilayet of Benghasi). Two of its bishops are known, Secundus, at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and Zeno, at that of Ephesus in 431 (Le Quien, "Oriens christ.", II, 623). The see is mentioned in Parthey (Notitia episcopatuum, I) about 840.
SMITH, Dict. of Gr. and Roman. Georgr., s.v. Teuchira; MULLER, notes to Ptolemy, ed. DIDOT, I, 666.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Tewdrig

From volume 14 of the work.
(THEODORIC)
A Welsh saint, son of King Ceithfalt of Morganwg or Southern Wales, flourished probably in the sixth century. He was a liberal benefactor of the church of Llandaff. He resigned the government to his son Meurig and devoted himself to religion and contemplation at Tintern in Monmouthshire. When, however, the Saxons under Ceolwulf crossed the Severn and pressed hard upon Meurig, Tewdrig left his solitude and gained a brilliant victory at the head of his old troops, but was killed in the main battle. A church was erected over the grave of the royal martyr; it was called Marthyr Tewdrig and is now Mathern at the junction of the Rivers Wye and Severn. The day of his death is 3 January; the year is uncertain, the dates 610, 577, 527, or even 470 being given.
GODWIN, De praesulibus Angliae (London, 1616), 619; REES, An Essay on the Welsh Saints (London, 1836), 183 sq.
Klemens Löffler.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Tewkesbury Abbey

From volume 14 of the work.
Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England, derives its name from Theoc, a hermit of early times, to whose memory a monastery was dedicated by the dukes of Mercia in the eighth century. In 980 it became a cell of the Benedictine Priory of Cranborne, in Dorset-shire; but having grown in wealth and importance after the Norman Conquest, and being richly endowed by FitzHamon (a cousin of the Conqueror) it became an independent abbey in 1103. Gerald was the first abbot, and the magnificent church—the largest in England, after Westminster, of abbey churches not now used as cathedrals—was completed and consecrated in 1123. FitzHamon, with his son-in-law Robert, Earl of Gloucester, was regarded as its second founder; and their descendants, the De Clares, Despencers, and Beauchamps, remained closely associated with it almost until the Dissolution. The tombs of many of them are still to be seen in the church. The Annals of Tewkesbury from the Conquest (1066) until 1263 are extant, and contain valuable notes on the national history, but little of interest about the abbey itself. During the thirteenth and succeeding centuries Tewkesbury was constantly receiving new endowments in lands and money, and became one of the wealthiest of English monasteries, its income at the Dissolution being set down at £1600 (equal to more than ten times that amount in modern money). The great battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471, between Yorkists and Lancastrians, was fought in the very precincts of the abbey; and many of those who fell, including Henry VI's only son, were buried in the church.
Sixty-eight years later the last abbot, John Wakeman, surrendered the abbey to Henry VIII. Wakeman himself was handsomely pensioned, and in 1541 became first bishop of the newly-erected See of Gloucester. The abbot's house was preserved intact; most of the remaining monastic buildings were destroyed as "superfluous"; but the magnificent church was subsequently sold by the king to the parishioners of Tewkesbury, and was thus saved from destruction. It measures 317 feet long by 122 across the transepts, and the massive central tower is 132 feet high. The pillars and triforium of the nave and the lower part of the choir belong to the original Norman church; the splendid groined roof, replacing the original Norman ceiling, and apsidal choir with chevet of surrounding chapels (closely resembling Westminster Abbey), date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The choir windows contain some fine old stained glass. The whole church underwent careful restoration under Sir Gilbert Scott (1875-79), and four years later the restoration committee was enabled to repurchase what remained of the monastic buildings.
D. O. Hunter-Blair.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thaddeus Amat

From volume 1 of the work.
​Amat, Thaddeus, second Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles, California, U.S., b. 31 December, 1810, at Barcelona, Spain; d. at Los Angeles. California, 12 May, 1878. He joined the Lazarists in early manhood and was ordained a priest at the house of that Congregation in Paris, in 1838. He came to the United States in 1838 and worked in the missions in Louisiana. He was master of novices in the houses of the Lazarists in Missouri and Philadelphia in 1841–47, and on the promotion of Bishop Alemany of Monterey to be Archbishop of San Francisco, Father Amat was named to succeed him. He was consecrated Bishop of the diocese in Rome, 12 March, ​1854. There were seventeen priests in the diocese then to care for the spiritual needs of a very mixed population largely of Spanish origin. The opening of the mining era of the early fifties brought a large accession of other settlers, and Bishop Amat, visiting Europe to obtain additional aid for his diocese, brought back Lazarist priests and Sisters of Charity with him. He was given permission by the Holy See, in 1859, to call himself Bishop of Los Angeles, and changed his residence to that city. There, under his inspiration, the Lazarists opened St. Vincents College and the Franciscan Brothers took charge of the parochial schools. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were also introduced. A serious spinal affection forced Bishop Amat to ask for a coadjutor and his vicar-general, the Rev. Francis Mora, was so consecrated 3 July, 1873. He had begun a new cathedral and lived to see it dedicated 9 April, 1876. When he died, at the age of sixty-seven, the progress of the diocese under his jurisdiction was indicated in the increase to 51 priests, 32 churches, 15 chapels, and 32 stations, 6 academies and substantial parochial schools, asylums, and other charitable institutions.
Shea, Hist. of Cath. Church in U. S. (New York, 1904); Reuss, Biog. Cyclo. of the Cath. Hierarchy of the U.S. (Milwaukee, Wis., 1898).
Thomas F. Meehan.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thagora

From volume 14 of the work.
(Tagora)
Titular see in Numidia, mentioned by the "Rabula Peutingeriana", which calls it Thacora, and by the "Itinerarium Antoninum"; Justinian fortified it. It is now the village of Taoura, near Ain Guettar, about thirteen miles southeast of Souk Ahras (ancient Thagaste), Department of Constantine, Algeria. It has ruins of baths, a church, and the fortress of Justinian, and a number of inscriptions have been discovered. Thagura was the birthplace of St. Crispin, martyred at Theveste (now Tebessa) under Diocletian, whose feast is observed 5 December. It was also the scene of the martyrdom of Sts. Julius and Potamia and ten other martyrs who are likewise commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the same day. The first two figures in the Hieronymian Martyrology and the Calendar of Carthage. Three bishops of Thagura are known: Kanthippus in 401, mentioned in a letter of St. Augustine's; Restitutus, present in 411 at the Conference of Carthage; Timotheus, exiled by Huneric in 484
TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chrétienne ; Numidie (Paris 1894), 285-87; DIEHL, l'Afrique byzantine (Paris,1896), 605.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thagaste

From volume 14 of the work.
(TAGASTE)
Thagaste, a titular see in Numidia, was a rather important municipality. It is mentioned by Pliny (V, iv, 4) and the "Itinerar. Antonini" (44), but nothing is known of its history. It is famous as having been the birthplace of St. Augustine, who was born there in 354 of the pagan Patricius and St. Monica. St. Augustine speaks of a monastery of Thagaste where he lived with Severus his compatriot and friend, later Bishop of Milevis. Only three bishops of Thagaste are known: St. Firmus (end of third century), mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 31 July; St. Alypius (q.v.), b. at Thagaste, the friend of Augustine, whose feast is 15 August; and Januarius, sent by Huneric into exile (484), where he died for the Faith. The See of Thagaste still existed about 600. At the time of the French occupation the country was under the dominion of the Arabized Berber tribe of the Hanensha, whose territory bordered on the modern Tunisia. Thagaste is now Souk Ahras, capital of a commune of 7500 inhabitants of whom 4000 are Europeans, and of a mixed community of 42,600 inhabitants, Department of Constantine, Algeria. Souk-Ahras, its modern representative, is built on a small peaked plateau, and is well served by railways. It is a very important agricultural centre, its industries consisting of vineyards, cattle-breeding, vast forests, and mining. Ruins of a basilica and various Christian monuments have been found.
TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne. Numidie (Paris, 1894), 281-85; RENIER in Comptes rendus de l'academie des inscriptiones et belles-lettres (1857-58), 82.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thabraca

From volume 14 of the work.
A titular see of Numidia near the sea, between the Armua and the Tusca. Thabraca was the last Numidian city in the direction of the Zeugitana and was a Roman colony. It was connected by a road with Simitthu, to which it served as a port for the exportation of its famous marbles. At Thabraca Gildo, the brother of Firmus, committed suicide. Under Genseric it had a monastery for men and one for women. It is now Tabarka, annexed to the civil district of Souk el-Arba, Tunis, and a rather important fishing centre. Confronting it, at a distance of about 365 yards, is the small Island of Tabarca, where the Genoese Lomellini, who had purchased the grant of the coral fishing from the Turks, maintained a garrison from 1540 to 1742. Here may still be seen the ruins of a stronghold, a church, and some Genoese buildings. At Tabarka the ruins consist of a pit used as a church and some fragments of walls which belonged to Christian buildings. There are also two Turkish fortresses, one of which has been repaired. The city contains several Christian cemeteries, many of the tombs having covers adorned with curious mosaics. An inscription (C.I.L., VIII, 173-82) mentions the cult of the martyr Anastasia and her companions. The bishops of Thabraca, who met with those of the proconsulate, were: Victoricus, at the Council of Carthage (256); Rusticianus, at the conference of Carthage in 411, where his competitor was the Donatist Charentius, and signer in 416 of the letter from the council of Proconsular Africa to Pope Innocent; Clarissimus, who in 646 signed the letter from the same Council to patriarch Paul of Constantinople against the Monothelites.
SMITH, Dict. Greek and Roman Geog., S.V.; TOULOTTE, Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne: Numidie (Paris, 1894), 277-80; DIEHL, L'Afrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Thacia Montana

From volume 14 of the work.
A titular see in Africa Proconsularis, suffragan of Carthage. An inscription discovered in the ruins known as Henshir Bedji, among them a church, near Bordj Messaoudi, seems to indicate that this was the site of the municipium of Thacia, to which Wadi Tasaa, or Tessa, also owes its name. It was located on the highway between Carthage and Theveste, midway between Musti (Mest) and Drusiliana (Khanguet Kdim), Tunisia. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (IV, 3), the "Tabula Peutinger.", and the "Geogr. Ravennat." (151); it was fortified during the Byzantine period, and at the end of 545 the Byzantine general, John, was defeated and slain there. On the other hand, at the present Eufida, 6 1/4 miles west of Botria (Henshir Batria), at the ruins called Henshir Zaktoun, an inscription has been found proving the existence at that place of another municipium called Thaca, also fortified during the Byzantine period. Mgr. Toulotte ("Geog. de l'Afrique Chretienne Proconsulaire, Paris, 1892, 258-60) assigns to the first locality two bishops, the Donatist Cresconius, present at the Council of Cabarsussi in 393, and Victor, who in 646 signed the letter against the Monothelites from the Council of Proconsular Africa to the Patriarch Paul of Constantinople; to the second locality he assigns Rufinus, present at the Council of Carthge in 525, and Probus who in 646 signed the letter to the Patriarch Paul. The two last-named were entitled bishops of "Tacia Montana". It may be questioned whether they were really bishops of Thaca, or if there was not near Thacia a place of the same name to which was added a distinctive epithet. The official list of titular sees of the Roman Curia mentions only Thacia Monana and identifies it with Bordj Messaoudi.
MULLER, Notes a Ptolemee, ed. DIDOT, I, 651; DIEHL, L'Afrique byzantine (Paris, 1896), passim.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. John Amias

From volume 1 of the work.
An English Martyr; b. at Wakefield; d. at York, 16 March, 1589. He exercised the trade of a cloth-merchant in Wakefield until the death of his wife, when he divided his property among his children, and became a priest at Reims in 1581. Of his missionary life we know little; he was arrested at the house of a Mr. Murton in Lancashire, taken to York, and tried in company with two other martyrs, Dalby and Dibdale. Anthony (Dean) Champney was present at their execution, of which he has left an account in his history. Other accounts note that he went to death "as joyfully as if to a feast". He was declared Venerable in 1886.
CHALLONER; FOLEY, Records S.J., iii, 739; POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891), 331.
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. John Duckett

A Martyr, probably a grandson of Venerable James Duckett, born at Underwinder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1603; died 7 September, 1644. He was ordained priest in 1639 and afterwards went to Paris where he studied three years in the College of Arras. He had an extraordinary gift of prayer, and while yet a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthusian prior at Nieuport. He laboured for about a year in Durham and was taken near Wolsingham on his way to baptize two children, 2 July, 1644. The place which tradition declares to be that of his arrest is now marked by a tall stone cross. Carried to Sunderland, he was examined by a Parliamentary Committee of sequestrators, and placed in irons. He confessed his priesthood and was thereupon sent up to London with Father Ralph Corbie, S. J. (q. v.), who had been arrested about the same time near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were committed to Newgate, and edified the crowds of Catholics who flocked to see them by their joyousness, their sanctity, and their longing to suffer for Christ. A reprieve for one of them having been obtained, each refused to take it for himself. On his way to execution, Duckett astonished all by his supernatural joy; comforting those who wept for him, he said smiling: "Why weep you for me who am glad at heart of this happy day?" His jailers even were so struck by his gladness that they exclaimed "assuredly this man dies for a good cause". He suffered with Father Corbie, at Tyburn. In a farewell letter to the Bishop of Chalcedon, he wrote on the eve of his martyrdom: "I fear not death, nor I contemn not life. If life were my lot, I would endure it patiently; but if death, I shall receive it joyfully, for that Christ is my life, and death is my gain. Never since my receiving of Holy Orders did I so much fear death as I did life, and now, when it approacheth can I faint?"
POLLEN, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891); CAMM, A North Country Martyr, the Venerable John Duckett (with portrait, London); CHALLONER, Memoirs (London, 1741); GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., II.
Bede Camm.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. John Adams

From volume 1 of the work.
​Adams, John, Venerable, priest, Priest, martyred at Tyburn, 8 October, 1586. He had been a Protestant minister, but being converted, went to Reims in 1579, where he was ordained a priest. He returned to England in March, 1581. Father William Warford, who knew him personally, described him as a man of "about forty years of age, of average height, with a dark beard, a sprightly look and black eyes. He was a very good controversialist, straightforward, very pious, and pre-eminently a man of hard work. He laboured very strenuously at Winchester and in Hampshire, where he helped many, especially of the poorer classes." Imprisoned in 1584, he was banished with seventy-two other priests in 1585; but having returned was again arrested, and executed, with two others, Ven. John Lowe and Ven. Robert Dibdale.
Patrick Ryan.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. John Almond

From volume 1 of the work.
​Almond, John, Venerable, English priest and martyr, b. about 1577; d. at Tyburn, 5 December, 1612. He passed his childhood at Allerton near Liverpool, where he was born, and at Much-Woolton. His boyhood and early manhood were spent in Ireland, until he went to the English College, Rome, at the age of twenty. He concluded his term there brilliantly by giving the "Grand Act"—a public defence of theses which cover the whole course of philosopy and theology—and was warmly congratulated by Cardinals Baronius and Tarugi, who presided. The account of his death describes him as "a reprover of sin, a good example to follow, of an ingenious and acute understanding, sharp and apprehensive in his conceits and answers, yet complete with modesty, full of courage and ready to suffer for Christ, that suffered for him." He was arrested in the year 1608, and again in 1612. In November of this year seven priests escaped from prison, and this may have sharpened the zeal of the persecutors, Dr. King, Protestant Bishop of London, being especially irritated against Almond. He displayed to the last great acuteness in argument, and died with the Holy Name upon his lips.
Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891), 170–194; Foley, Records S.J., V, viii.
Patrick Ryan.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ven. John Bodey

From volume 2 of the work.
Martyr, b. at Wells, Somerset: 1549; d. at Andover, Wilts., 2 November, 1583. He studied at Winchester and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fellows, by the Visitor, Horne, Protestant Bishop of Winchester. Next year he went to Douay College to study civil law, returned to England in February, 1578, and probably married. Arrested in 1580, he was kept in iron shackles in Winchester gaol, and was condemned in April, 1583, together with John Slade, a schoolmaster, for maintaining the old religion and denying the Royal Supremacy. There was apparently a feeling that this sentence was unjust and illegal, and they were actually tried and condemned apin at Andover, 19 August, 1583, on the same indictment. Bodey had a controversy with Humphreys, Dean of Winchester, on the Nicene Council, and the martyr's notes from Eusebius still exist. After his second trial, he wrote from prison to Dr. Humphrey Ely, "We consider that iron for this cause borne on earth shall surmount gold and, precious stones in Heaven. That is our mark, that is our desire. In the mean season we are threatened daily, and do look still when the hurdle shall be brought to the door. I beseech you, for God's sake, that we want not the good prayers of you all for our strength, our joy, and our perseverance unto the end. . . . From our school of patience the 16th September, 1583."
At his martyrdom, Bodey kissed the halter, saying, "O blessed chain, the sweetest chain and richest that ever came about any man's neck", and when told he died for treason, exclaimed, "You may make the hearing of a blessed Mass treason, or the saying of an Ave Maria treason . . . but I have committed no treason, although, indeed, I suffer the punishment due to treason". He exhorted the people to obey Queen Elizabeth and died saying, "Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus". His mother made a great feast upon the occasion of her son's happy death, to which she invited her neighbours, rejoicing at his death as his marriage by which his soul was happily and eternally espoused to the Lamb.
Account of the trial and execution of John Slade, schoolmaster, and John Body, M.A., by R. B. (London, 1583); Challoner, Memoirs; Sanders, Anglican Schism, ed. Lewis (London, 1877); Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891); Wainewright, Two English Martyrs: Body and Munden (London, Cath. Truth Soc.); Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878); Allen, A true, sincere, and modest defence of English Catholiques (Reims, 1584).
Bede Camm.