OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/José Francisco de Paula Señan

From volume 13 of the work.
Born at Barcelona, Spain, 3 March, 1760; died at Mission San Buenaventura on 24 Aug., 1823; entered the Franciscan Order in 1774. In 1784 he was incorporated in the missionary college of San Fernando in the City of Mexico, and im 1787 sent to California. He was there assigned to the Mission of San Carlos and remained until 1795, when he retired to Mexico and reported the missionary conditions in the territory to the viceroy. In 1798 he returned to California, and was stationed at Mission San Buenaventura until his death. From July, 1812, till the end of 1815 Señan held the office of presidente of the missions. In October, 1819, he was reappointed and continued in office until he died. As presidente he was also vicar forane to the Bishop of Sonora for Upper California. A month before his death he moreover received the appointment of vice-commissary prefect. Señan was familiar with the language of the Indians, and his reports and mission entries are distinguished by their exactness and beauty of penmanship. Though a very zealous missionary, Señan loved a retired life. He disliked to hold office or give orders; for this reason he was sometimes nicknamed Padre Calma. The commissary-general of the Indies directed him to write a history of the missions, and Señan in 1819 promised to comply; but he left no papers on the subject. His remains were interred in the church of San Buenaventura Mission.
Santa Barbara Archives; Mission Records of San Buenaventura; ENGELHARDT, The Franciscans in California (Harbor Springs, Mich, 1897); BANCROFT, California, II (San Francisco, 1886); Missions and Missionaries of California, II (San Francisco, 1912).
Zephyrin Engelhardt.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/José Antonio Alzate

From volume 1 of the work.
​Alzate, José Antonio, b. at Ozumba, Mexico, in 1738; d. in 1799. Alzate, who was a priest, was one ​of the most zealous students of liberal sciences in New Spain in the seventeenth century. More than thirty treatises on various subjects are due to his pen. Astronomy, physics, meteorology, antiquities, metallurgy, were among the topics on which he wrote, but he also devoted serious attention to certain branches of industry. Thus the growing of silk in Mexico was the subject of several of his papers. He wrote a dissertation on the use of ammonia in combating mephitic gases in abandoned mines, and also prepared maps of New Spain (Mexico). He was frequently opposed, even reviled, at home, but the French Academy of Sciences made him a corresponding member, and the viceroys of Mexico and the archbishops entrusted him with sundry scientific missions. In 1768 he began the publication, at Mexico, of a newspaper, the "Diario literario de México". His description of the ruins of Xochicalco is the first notice published of these interesting ruins. He also wrote a commentary upon the work of Clavigero on aboriginal Mexico and the natural history of that country.
Anales del museo nacional de México; Beristain de Souza, Biblioteca hispano-americana setentrional (Mexico, 1816); Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres et monuments indigenes.
Ad. F. Bandelier.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/José Bernardo Sánchez

From volume 13 of the work.
Born at Robledillo, Old Castile, Spain, 7 September, 1778; d. at San Gabriel, California, 15 January, 1833. He became a Franciscan on 9 October, 1794, and joined the missionary college of San Fernando, Mexico, in 1803, going to California the following year. He was stationed at Mission San Diego (1804-20); Mission Purisima 1820-1); and at San Gabriel. In 1806, as chaplain, Fr. Sánchez accompanied a military expedition against the savages. In 1821 with Fr. Prefect Mariano Payeras he went with an exploring expedition into the interior to search for new mission sites. From 1827 to 1831 he reluctantly held the position of presidente of the missions and of vicar forane to the bishop. He was a very pious and energetic missionary, but dreaded the office of superior. His incessant appeals for relief were at last granted, but he survived only two years. During his term he vigorously opposed Governor Echeandia's secularization scheme. In a long series of critical notes he showed that the plan would result in the destruction of the missions and the ruin of the neophytes. "As far as it concerns me personally", he wrote, "would that it might be to-morrow, so that I might retire between the four walls of a cell to weep over the time I wasted in behalf of these unfortunates." There is no doubt that the sight of the inevitable ruin hastened his death. His remains were buried at the foot of the altar of San Gabriel Mission.
Santa Barbara Archives; Records of Mission San Diego, San Carlos, and San Gabriel; Engelhardt, The Franciscans in California (Harbor Springs, Mich., 1897); Bancroft, California (San Francisco, 1886).
Zephyrin Engelhardt.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/José Agostinho de Macedo

From volume 9 of the work.
Macedo, José Agostinho de (1761-1831), Portuguese controversialist, preacher, and poet, was born at Beja and educated by the Oratorians. Entering the Augustinian Order, he made his profession in 1778, but lived in perpetual strife with his superiors and finally abandoned the monastic life and habit. In 1792 he was unfrocked, but appealed against the sentence and obtained a papal Brief which secularized him and conserved his ecclesiastical status. He now laid the foundations of a vast though superficial learning, while, as a means of livelihood, he devoted himself to writing and preaching. He founded, or contributed to, a large number of newspapers and in these, and in political pamphlets, defended the absolute monarchy and the Church against liberalism in politics and religion, though he changed his views more than once in accordance with his interests or sympathies. His fiery zeal was equaled by a brilliancy of invective and mordant satire which gained him bitter foes and warm admirers. From 1824 to 1829 he served as diocesan censor and his critical analyses of the books submitted to him reveal his versatility, though this, and his fecundity, are best seen by the catalogue of his writings which occupies thirty pages in Vol. 4 of the "Diccionario Bibliographico" of Innocencio da Silva. As early as 1802 he became one of the royal preachers and his sonorous voice and discourses seasoned by political allusions made him the most popular pulpit orator of the day. He introduced didactic poetry into Portugal, writing rhetorical poems devoid of inspiration, and sought to rival Camoens by a lifeless epic "Oriente".
In that decadent period Macedo was able to enthrone himself as dictator of letters, but this involved him in numerous literary duels with rival bards whom he chastised in "Os Burros", the most libellous poem in the language. His political and erotic odes reach a high level, but he gave the best proof of his rare intellectual powers in the philosophical treatise "A demonstration of the existence of God", while his tract "On the state of Portugal" (1808) shows a sound perception which is lacking in his later prose work. A man of immense vanity, irregular life, and atrabilious temper, he yet had an affable manner and kindly heart and contributed generously to charities. These qualities and his rare talents earned him a great position and much esteem so that, when he passed away, part of the population mourned his death as a national loss.
EDGAR PRESTAGE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/José Iglesias de la Casa

From volume 7 of the work.
A Spanish of the coterie gathered about Meléndez, Valdés, born at Salamanca, 31 October, 1748; died prematurely at his native place in 1791. He pursued his studies at the famous University of Salamanca, and in 1783 took Holy orders at Madrid. During his lifetime he published two rather mediocre poems, "La niñez Laureada" (dealing with an infant prodigy, who at the age of hardly four years underwent a university examination), and "La Teclogia". Before producing these he had composed his really important poems, which are chiefly satirical and epigrammatical in their nature. In fact, as a satirist he is to be ranked only lower than the great Quevedo. Certain portions of his satirical lyrics proved offense to the authorities, and the 1798 edition of them was put on the Index by the Inquisition. The necessity of this action was denied by some of his warm friends. Among the better-known editions of his works are those of Barcelona (1820 and 1837), of Paris (1821), and of Madrid (1841). They are most readily accessible in the "Biblioteca de autores Españoles", vol. LXI, which contains about 38 letrillas — in the composition of which he excelled — besides a numbers of satires, epigrams, odes, anacreontics, ecologues, etc. Not long since, some of his unedited poems were published by R. Foulche-Delbosc, in the "Revue Hispanique", vol. II.
J.D.M. FORD
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Dollier de Casson

From volume 3 of the work.
Fourth superior of Saint-Sulpice, Montreal, Canada, b. near Nantes, France, 1636; d. in 1701. He was first a soldier and served as a captain under Marshal Turenne, his bravery eliciting this general's esteem. In 1657 he entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, at Paris, was admitted into the Company, and went to Canada in 1666. There he devoted himself with great ardour to missionary work and, in company with Father Galinée, a fellow Sulpician, made a reconnoitring tour of Lakes Erie and Ontario; unfortunately, his account of the expedition has been lost. In 1671 Father de Casson succeeded Father de Queylus as superior of the Sulpicians, and while in this position contributed largely to the development of Villemarie (Montreal), planned the laying out of its streets, began the canal known since by the name of Lachine, and moreover, stimulated the energy of the colonists under trying and hazardous circumstances. He wrote a "Histoire du Montreal" (Mémoires de la société historique de Montréal, 1869), and "Récit de ce qui s'est passé au voyage que M. de Courcelles a fait au lac Ontario" (Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, old French supplement, no. 13, 516, 516, fol. 207-218).
A. FOURNET
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Eustache Lesueur

From volume 9 of the work.
François Eustache Lesueur, Jesuit missionary and philologist, of the Abnaki mission in Canada; born (according to notes given by Thwaites, apparently from official sources) near Coutances, Normandy, 22 July, 1685 or 1686, though Maurault gives his birthplace as Lunel, in Languedoc; died at Montreal, 28 or 26 April, 1760, or (according to Maurault) at Quebec, in 1755. Although the principal facts of his work and writings are well known, there is remarkable uncertainty as to dates, places, and even his proper name. This uncertainty is probably largely due to the burning of the St. Francis mission, with all its records, by the English in 1759. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1704 or 1705, arrived in Canada in 1715 or 1716, studied the language for some months at the Abnaki mission of Sillery, and then began work at St. Francis, the principal Abnaki mission, remaining there until 1727 or later. He was at Montreal in 1730 and during 1749-54. According to Maurault, he arrived in Canada in June, 1715, and after a short stay at Sillery was sent to Bécancour, another Abnaki mission, on the St. Lawrence, where, with the exception of occasional parochial service, he remained until 1753, when he retired to Quebec. The name is variously given as François Eustache (Maurault), Jacques François (Thwaites), and Jacques (Calumet Dance Manuscript). In connexion with his study of Indian things, he wrote, besides prayers, sermons, etc., in the Abnaki language, a valuable account of the celebrated Calumet Dance, which gave so much trouble to the early missionaries. The original French manuscript is preserved at St. Francis mission, Pierreville, Canada, and was published in the "Soirées Canadiennes" of 1864. Manuscript copies are in St. Mary's College, Montreal, and with the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison. According to Maurault, he compiled also a Dictionary of Abnaki, of 900 pages, still in existence, but we are not told where the manuscript is preserved.
THWAITES (ed.). The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, LXIX (Cleveland, 1900); MAURAULT, Histoire des Abenakis (Sorel, 1866); PILLING, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, 1891).
JAMES MOONEY.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Joseph Heim

From volume 7 of the work.
French historical painter, b. near Belfort, 1787, d. in Paris, 1865. This clever painter commenced work when eight years old, and gained the first prize for drawing in Strasburg before he was eleven. He was a pupil of Vincent in 1803, his people having sent him to Paris to receive the best instruction they could afford. In 1807 he won a prize at the Academy with a picture of Theseus and the Minotaur, and a travelling scholarship with which he went to Rome. On his return to Paris he carried off the gold medal at the Academy, became a full member in 1829, and a professor in 1831. He was appointed painter to the Institute of France, and exhibited over sixty portraits of members, the drawings for which are now in the Louvre. His historical and religious paintings were very attractive. The best of them, representing Jacob in Mesopotamia, was executed in 1814, and is now to be seen at Bordeaux. Two of the ceilings in the Louvre, and three of the ceilings in the Senate house in Paris are his work, and his pictures are also to be found at Versailles and Strasburg.
A privately printed essay from the Strasburg Artistic Society's Proceedings (1901).
GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Delfau

From volume 4 of the work.
Theologian, born 1637 at Montel in Auvergne, France; died 13 Oct., 1676, at Landevenec in Normandy. He joined the Order of St. Benedict when he was seventeen years of age, and made his solemn profession at the Abbey of St. Allire, 2 May, 1656. He was a profound student of the Fathers of the Church and the history of the councils. Constant application to study speedily matured the powers of his exceptionally keen and brilliant mind, and he soon came to be looked upon as a foremost authority on all questions connected with patristic theology. When the Congregation of St. Maur in 1670 determined to undertake a critical edition of the works of St. Augustine, Delfau was commissioned by his superiors to prepare it. The task was a difficult one, but together with six other members of the order, among them his intimate friend Dom Robert Guérard, he began with energy and courage this great labour of love, and prosecuted it with an ardour truly Benedictine. In 1671 he prepared an elaborate prospectus, setting forth the general scope and character of the new edition and the principles by which the editors were to be guided. Manuscripts came to the learned Maurists from various countries, and Pope Clement X even sent them priceless codices of the Vatican Library together with all the materials that had been gathered there under Clement VIII for a projected edition of the Opera Augustini. When the first two volumes were about to be printed, the work was suddenly arrested, 18 Sept., 1675, by two lettres de cachet from Louis XIV, decreeing the banishment of both Delfau and Guérard from Paris. The occasion for this drastic measure seems to have been Delfau's book "L'abbé commendataire", published at Cologne, 1673, in which the young monk had severely commented on the abuses connected with the system of commendam as it was then shamelessly carried on in France to the great detriment of the Church. The fearless work greatly aroused the king's anger, of which the enemies of the Maurists did not fail to take advantage. Delfau was obliged to withdraw to the monastery of Landevenec; he lived there but little more than a year when, at the early age of thirty-eight, he was drowned as he was crossing to the Carmelite convent at Brest, where he was to deliver a eulogy on the feast-day of St. Teresa. Delfau's works are: "Apologia Cardinalis Fürstenbergii"; a masterly epitaph on Casimir, King of Poland, who died as Abbot of St. Germain des Prés; and a dissertation on the authorship of the "Imitatio Christi", in his edition of that book (Paris, 1673).
BÄUMER, Johannes Mabillon (Augsburg, 1592). 97 Sq.; TASSIN, Hist. littéraire de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur (Paris, 1770); ZIEGELBAUER, Hist. rei lit. O. S. B. (Augsburg. 1754), III, 395 sq.
THOMAS OESTREICH.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Edouard Joachim Coppée

From volume 4 of the work.
Poet, dramatist and novelist, b. at Paris, 26 January 1842; d. 23 May 1908. His father, a clerk in the war department, gave him the example of a true Christian life. He studied for a few years at the Lycée Saint-Louis, but his family being in straightened circumstances, he left the school before graduating to aid in their support. He completed his education by private study, spending long hours in the Library Ste-Genevieve, after a hard day's work. In 1863, he joined the group of poets later celebrated under the name of the "Parnassiens", and three years later published his first collection of verses, "le Reliquaire", soon followed by "Intimités". His first play "Le Passant", was produced in 1869. Through the influence of Princesse Mathilde, he was appointed assistant-librarian at the senate, a sinecure which allowed him to devote himself to literature. From 1871 to 1885 he was librarian at the Comédie Française. In 1876 he received the cross of the Legion of Honour, and was elected to the French Academy in 1884, succeeding Laprade, another poet whose talent did no little honour to the Catholic Faith. The works of Coppée come under four classes: narrative poems, dramas, novels and short stories. The narrative poems, including "Le Reliquaire" (1866), "Intimites" (1868), "Les Humbles" (1872), "Contes en Vers" (1880), and "Les Poèmes Modernes" (1867–69), present picturesque studies of contemporary life, the sentimental realism of which is entirely free from coarseness or triviality. He wrote a great number of plays in verse, chief among which are: "Le Passant" (1869), "Le Luthier de Cremone" (1876), "Severo Torelli" (1883), which is regarded as his dramatic masterpiece, "Les Jacobites" (1885), "Pour La Couronne" (1895), "Fais ce que Dois" (1871), and "Le Pater", a play dealing with an episode of the Commune; long forbidden by the Government, it obtained a great success in 1890. His drama is remarkable for its lofty and generous ideals, while its technique shows a constant effort to combine the theory of romanticism with the demands of modern theories. His works in prose comprise several novels: "Henriette" (1889); "Une idylle pendant le siege" (1874); "Les vrais riches" (1898); "Rivales" (1893); "le Coupable" (1897), and many short stories "Contes en prose" (1882); "Vingt contes nouveaux" (1883); "Contes rapides" (1889). The short stories are the most popular part of his works. Simplicity, truth and vividness in the portrayal of familiar scenes, constitute the charm that has so endeared the author to readers the world over. In "La Bonne Souffrance", written in 1898, after a serious illness that brought him back to the religious faith of his childhood, there are elements of great strength and sweetness. The last years of his life were saddened by cruel sufferings endured with patience. He was a modest man and led a quiet simple life. He was always ready to help those who struggle through life in obscurity. He gave to the French Academy, in 1907, a sum yielding $200 annually to be used as a prize for young poets.
LOUIS N. DELAMARRE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Feuardent

From volume 6 of the work.
A Franciscan, theologian, preacher of the Ligue, b. at Coutanees, Normandy, in 1539; d. at Paris, 1 Jan., 1610. Having compteted his humanities at Bayeux, he joined the Friars Minor. After the novitiate, he was sent to Paris to continue his studies, where he received (1576) the degree of Doctor in Theology and taught with great success at the university. He took a leading part in the political and religious troubles in which France was involved at that time. With John Boucher and Bishop Rose of Senlis, he was one of the foremost preachers in the cause of the Catholic Ligue and, as Roennus remarks in an appendix to Feuardent's "Theomachia", there was not a church in Paris in which he had not preached. Throughout France and beyond the frontiers in Lorraine and Flanders, he was an eloquent and ardent defender of the Faith. Nevertheless even Pierre de l'Etoile, a fierce adversary of the Ligue, recognises in his "Mémoires" the merits of Feuardent's subsequent efforts in pacifying the country. In his old age he retired to the convent of Bayeux, which he restored and furnished with a good library. His works can be conveniently grouped in three classes: (1) Scriptural; (2) patristical; (3) controversial. Only some of the most remarkable may be pointed out here. (1) A new edition of the medieval Scripturist, Nicholas of Lyra: "Biblia Sacra, cum glossa ordinaria . . . et postillâ Nicolai Lyrani" (Paris, 1590), 6 vols. fol.). He also wrote commentaries on various books of Holy Scripture, viz on Ruth Esther, Job, Jonas, the two Epistles of St. Peter, the Epistles of St. Jude and St. James, the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon, and others. (2) "S. Irenaei Lugd. episcopi adversus Valentini . . . haereses libri quinque" (Paris, 1576); "S. lldephonsi archiepiscopi Toletani de virginitate Mariae liber" (Paris, 1576). Feuardent also wrote an introduction and notes to "Michaelis Pselli Dialogus de energiâ seu operatione daemonum translatus a Petro Marrello" (Paris, 1577). (3) "Appendix ad libros Alphonsi a Castro (O.F.M.) contra haereses" (Paris, 1578). "Theomachia Calvinistica", his chief work is based on some earlier writings, such as: "Semaine premiere des dialogues auxquels sont examinees et refutees 174 erreurs des Calviniste" (1585); "Seconde semaine des dialogues . . ." (Paris, 1598); "Entremangeries et guerres mininstrales . . ." (Caen, 1601).
LIVARIUS OLIGER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/François Girardon

From volume 6 of the work.
A noted sculptor of the reign of Louis XIV, b. at Troyes, France, 1630; d. at Paris, 1715. The son of a bronze-founder, he studied first under the sculptor François Anguier and afterwards at Rome. Returning to France he was taken into the service of the king, working under Lebrun, whose favourite he was. After Lebrun's death in 1690 he exerted great influence as professor of the academy of sculpture and painting, of which institution he later became the chancellor. Like the other sculptors of his time he followed in the footsteps of Bernini, but the influence of the old school of Fontainebleau was also perceptible in his work. The Louvre possesses the model of his spirited equestrian statue of the king which was erected in the Place Vendome and destroyed during the Revolution. One of his finest works is the monument to Richelieu, in the church of the Sorbonne; the dying cardinal lies on a richly draped sarcophagus, supported by the figure of religion, while the figure of science mourns at his feet. Among his other sepulchral monuments are those in memory of his wife, the Princess de Conti, and the minister Louvois. The bust of Boileau is forceful but the wig on the beardless head reveals the tendency of the art of the age of Louis XIV to weaken its stateliness by effeminacy. Both these qualities are seen in the "Rape of Proserpine", an imitation of Bernini, which relies on the effect of contrast. The "Nymphs Bathing", a relief intended, like the work just mentioned, for the park of Versailles is a good example of his decorative, voluptuous style. Among other figures in the park of Versailles, either produced by him or under his direction attention may be called to the allegorical statue, "Winter as an Old Man".
G. GIETMANN