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# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Obedientiaries

From volume 11 of the work.
A name commonly used in medieval times for the lesser officials of a monastery who were appointed by will of the superior. In some cases the word is used to include all those who held office beneath the abbot, but more frequently the prior and sub-prior are excluded from those signified by it. To the obedientiaries were assigned the various duties pertaining to their different offices and they possessed considerable power in their own departments. There was always a right of appeal to the abbot or superior, but in practice most details were settled by the "customary" of the monastery. The list that follows gives the usual titles of the obedientiaries, but in some monasteries other names were used and other official positions may be found: thus, for example, to this day, in the great Swiss monastery of Einsiedeln the name "dean" is given to the official who is called prior in all other Benedictine houses.
Besides these officials who were appointed more or less permanently, there were certain others appointed for a week at a time to carry out various duties. These positions were usually filled in turn by all below the rank of sub-prior, though very busy officials, e. g., the cellarer, might be excused. The chief of these was the hebdomadarian, or priest for the week. It was his duty to sing the conventual mass on all days during the week, to intone the "Deus in adjutorium" at the beginning of each of the canonical hours, to bless holy water, etc. The antiphoner was also appointed for a week at a time. It was his duty to read or sing the invitatory at Matins, to give out the first antiphon at the Psalms, and also the versicles, responsoria after the lessons etc. The weekly reader and servers in the kitchen and refectory entered upon their duties on Sunday when, in company with the servers of the previous week, they had to ask and receive a special blessing in choir as directed in chapters xxxv and xxxviii of St. Benedict's Rule. Nowadays the tendency is towards a simplification in the details of monastic life and consequently to a reduction in the number of officials in a monastery, but all the more important offices named above exist to-day in every monastery though the name obedientiaries has quite dropped out of everyday use.
GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1904), 58-110; Customary of . . . St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and St. Peter's, Westminster, ed. THOMPSON (London, 1902); The Ancren Riwle, ed. MORTON (London, 1853); FEASEY, Monasticism (London, 1898), 175-252. See bibliography appended to MONASTICISM, WESTERN, and also to the articles on the various monastic orders.
G. ROGER HUDLESTON.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Obreption

From volume 11 of the work.
(Lat. ob and repere, "to creep over").
A canonical term applied to a species of fraud by which an ecclesiastical rescript is obtained. Dispensations or graces are not granted unless there be some motive for requesting them, and the law of the Church requires that the true and just causes that lie behind the motive be stated in every prayer for such dispensation or grace. When the petition contains a statement about facts or circumstances that are supposititious or at least, modified if they really exist, the resulting rescript is said to be vitiated by obreption. If, on the other hand, silence had been observed concerning something that essentially changed the state of the case, it is called subreption. Rescripts obtained by obreption or subreption are null and void when the motive cause of the rescript is affected by them. If it is only the impelling cause, and the substance of the petition is not affected, or if the false statement was made through ignorance, the rescript is not vitiated. As requests for rescripts must come through a person in ecclesiastical authority, it is his duty to inform himself of the truth or falsity of the causes alleged in the petitions, and in case they are granted, to see that the conditions of the rescript are fulfilled.
WILLIAM H. FANNING
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Oblate Sisters of Providence

From volume 11 of the work.
A congregation of negro nuns founded at Baltimore, Maryland, by the Rev. Jacques Hector Nicholas Joubert de la Muraille, for the education of coloured children. Father Joubert belonged to a noble French family forced by the Revolution to take refuge in San Domingo. Alone of his family, he escaped from a massacre and went to Baltimore, entering St. Mary's Seminary. After his ordination he was given charge of the coloured Catholics of St. Mary's chapel. Finding he was making no headway as the sermons were not remembered and there were no schools where the children could be taught, he formed the idea of founding a religious community for the purpose of educating these children. In this he was encouraged by his two friends, Fathers Babade and Tessier. He was introduced to four coloured women, who kept a small private school, and lived a retired life with the forlorn hope of consecrating their lives to God. Father Joubert made known to them his plans and they offered to be at his service. With the approval of the Archbishop of Baltimore a novitiate was begun and on 2 July, 1829, the first four sisters, Miss Elisabeth Lange of Santiago, Cuba, Miss Mary Rosine Boegues of San Domingo, Miss Mary Frances Balas of San Domingo, Miss Mary Theresa Duchemin of Baltimore made their vows. Sister Mary Elisabeth was chosen superior, and Rev. Father Joubert was appointed director. Gregory XVI approved the order 2 October, 1831 under the title of Oblate Sisters of Providence. At present the sisters conduct schools and orphanages at Baltimore, Washington, Leavenworth, St. Louis, Normandy (Mo.) and 4 houses in Cuba, 2 in Havana, 1 in Santa Clara, 1 in Cardenas. The mother-house and novitiate is at Baltimore. There were 130 sisters, 9 novices and 7 postulants in 1910.
MAGDALEN GRATIN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Obregonians

From volume 11 of the work.
(Or Poor Infirmarians)
A small congregation of men, who professed the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, founded by Bernardino Obregón (b. 5 May, 1540, at Las Huelgas near Burgos, Spain; d. 6 Aug., 1599). Of a noble family Obregon was an officer in the Spanish army, but retired and dedicated himself to the service of the sick in the hospitals of Madrid. Others became associated with him in hospital service and in 1567 by consent of the papal nuncio at Madrid the new congregation was founded. To the three ordinary vows were added that of free hospitality. The congregation did not found hospitals but served in those already existing. It spread in Spain and its dependencies, in Belgium and the Indies. Obregon went to Lisbon, 1592, and there founded an asylum for orphan boys; returning to Spain he assisted King Philip II in his last illness (1598). Paul V, 1609, allowed the Obregonians to wear over the grey habit of the Third Order of St. Francis a black cross on the left side of the breast to distinguish them from similar congregations. Since the French Revolution they have entirely disappeared.
LIVARIUS OLIGER
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Passiontide

From volume 11 of the work.
The two weeks between Passion Sunday and Easter. The last week is Holy Week, while the first is called by the Latins "Hebdomas Passionis", by the Greeks "Week of the palms" (from the Sunday following). During this time the monks of the East, who had chosen the desert for a severer mode of life, returned to their monasteries (Cyril of Scythopolis in "Life of St. Euthymius", n. 11). The rubrical prescriptions of the Roman Missal, Breviary, and "Caeremoniale Episcoporum" for this time are: before Vespers of Saturday preceding Passion Sunday the crosses, statues, and pictures of Our Lord and of the saints on the altar and throughout the church, with the sole exception of the crosses and pictures of the Way of the Cross, are to be covered with a violet veil, not translucent, nor in any way ornamented. The crosses remain covered until after the solemn denudation of the principal crucifix on Good Friday. The statues and pictures retain their covering, no matter what feast may occur, until the Gloria in Excelsis of Holy Saturday. According to an answer of the S. R. C. of 14 May, 1878, the practice may be tolerated of keeping the statue of St. Joseph, if outside the sanctuary, uncovered during the month of March, which is dedicated to his honour, even during Passiontide. In the Masses de tempore the Psalm Judica is not said; the Gloria Patri is omitted at the Asperges, the Introit, and the Lavabo; only two orations are recited and the Preface is of the Holy Cross. In the Dominical and ferial offices of the Breviary the doxology is omitted in the Invitatorium and in the responses, whether long or short. The crosses are veiled because Christ during this time no longer walked openly among the people, but hid himself. Hence in the papal chapel the veiling formerly took place at the words of the Gospel: "Jesus autem abscondebat se." Another reason is added by Durandus, namely that Christ's divinity was hidden when he arrived at the time of His suffering and death. The images of the saints also are covered because it would seem improper for the servants to appear when the Master himself is hidden (Nilles, "Kal.", II, 188).
In some places the crosses were covered on Ash Wednesday; in others on the first Sunday of Lent. In England it was customary on the first Monday of Lent to cover up all the crucifixes, images of every kind, the reliquaries, and even the cup with the Blessed Sacrament. The cloths used were of white linen or silk and marked with a red cross (Rock, infra, IV, 258). The two beautiful hymns of the season, "Vexilla Regis" and "Pange lingua gloriosi", are the work of Venantius Fortunatus (q. v.), Bishop of Poitiers. On the Friday of Passion Week the Church very appropriately honours the Seven Dolours of Our Lady. On Saturday the Greeks commemorate the resuscitation of Lazarus.
Rock, The Church of Our Fathers (London, 1904); Nilles, Kal. man. (Innsbruck, 1897).
FRANCIS MERSHMAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Patmos

From volume 11 of the work.
A small volcanic island in the Ægean Sea, off the coast of Asia Minor, to the south of Samos and west of Miletus, in lat. 37° 20' N. and long. 26° 35' E. Its length is about ten miles, its breadth six miles, and its coast line thirty seven miles. The highest point is Hagios Elias (Mt. St. Elias) rising to over 1050 feet. The island was formerly covered with luxuriant palm groves, which won it the name of Palmosa; of these groves there remains but a clump in the valley called "The Saint's Garden". The ancient capital occupied the northern (Ruvali) isthmus. The modern town of Patmos lies in the middle part of the island. Above it towers the battlements of St. John's Monastery, founded in 1088 by St. Christobulus. The Island of Patmos is famous in history as the place of St. John's exile: "I, John . . . was in the island, which is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus" (Apoc., i, 9); there according to general belief the Beloved Disciple wrote the Apocalypse, the imagery of which was in part inspired by the scenery of the island. The spot where St. John was favoured with his revelations is pointed out as a cave on the slope of the hill, half way between the shore and the modern town of Patmos.
Clark, Travels (London, 1818); Murray, Handbook to Asia Minor (London); Tozer, the Islands of the Ægean (London, 1890); Guérin, Description de l'Ile de Patmos (Paris, 1856); Lacroix, Les iles de la Grèce (Paris, 1853); Le Camus, Voyage aux pays bibliques (Paris, 1890); Ross, Reisen auf den griechischen Inseln (Stuttgart, 1840).
CHARLES L. SOUVAY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Patara

From volume 11 of the work.
Titular see of Lycia, suffragan of Myra, formerly a large cornmercial town, opposite Rhodes. Founded perhaps by the Phoenicians, it received later a Dorian colony from Crete; a legend traces its foundation to Patarus, son of Apollo. Renowned for its wealth, it was more so for its temple of Apollo where the oracles of the god were rendered during the winter.
Ptolemy Philadelphus extended it, naming it Arsinoe. On his third missionary journey St. Paul embarked from here for Tyre (Acts, xxi, 1-3). The "Notitiæ Episcopatuum" mention it among the suffragans of Myra as late as the thirteenth century. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 977) names seven bishops:
Its ruins are still visible near Djelemish, vilayet of Koniah; they consist of the remains of a theatre built by Antoninus Pius, public baths of the time of Vespasian, temples, and tombs. The port is choked with sand. SMITH Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog., s.v.; BEAUFORT, Karamania, II, 6; FELLOWS, An account of Discoveries in Lycia (London, 1841), 222; SPRATT AND FORBES, Travels in Lycia (London, 1847), I, 30, II, 189; BENNDORF and NIEMANN, Reisen in Lykien und Karien (Vienna, 1884), I, 114 sq., II, 118; HILL, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lycia, 25027.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Drachma

From volume 5 of the work.
(Gr. drachmé), a Greek silver coin. The Greeks derived the word from drássomai, "to grip", "to take a handful"; cf. drágma, manipulus, "a handful". Thus the term originally signified a handful of grain (Liddell and Scott; Riehm, "Handwörterbuch", Smith, "Dict. of Antiq."). But in Vigouroux, "Dict. de la Bible", the term is derived from daraq-mana, the name of a Persian coin equivalent to the Hebrew drkmwn, dárkemôn. The Persian word darag, Assyrian darku, means "degree", "division". Thus the words daraq-mana and drachma would signify a part of a mina. The darag-mana was also called a Daric because it was first struck by the emperor Darius Hystaspis. The drachma contained six oboli. It was the fourth part of a stater, the hundredth part of a mina, and the six-thousandth part of a talent. The precise value of the drachma differed at various times. The two principal standards of currency in the Grecian states were the Attic and the Æginetan. The Attic drachma had the greater circulation after the time of Alexander the Great. Its weight was about 66 grains, its value was a little less than twenty cents (nine pence, three farthings), and its size was about that of a quarter. On the one side it had the head of Minerva, and on the reverse her emblem, the owl, surrounded by a crown of laurels. The Æginetan drachma weighed about 93 grains and was equivalent to one and two-thirds Attic drachmas. It was current in the Peloponnessus (Corinth excepted, Riehm, "Handwörterb.") and in Macedonia until Alexander the Great. The drachma is mentioned in the Old Testament (II Machabees, xii, 43), when Judas sends 12,000 drachmas to Jerusalem that sacrifices may be offered for the dead. In the New Testament (Luke, xv, 8, 9), Christ used the word in the parable of the woman that has ten drachmas (D. V. "groats") and loses one.
RIEHM, Handwörterbuch; BEURLIER in VIG. Dict. de la Bible, s. v. Drachme; BABINGTON in Dict. of the Bible s. v. Mondy; WEX, Métrologie grecque et romaine (Paris, 1886).
C. VAN DEN BIESEN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Polybotus

From volume 12 of the work.
A titular see in Phrygia Salutaris, suffragan of Synnada. This town is mentioned only in the sixth century by Hierocles, "Synecdemus", 677, 10. It is now Boulvadin, capital of the caza of the vilayet of Brousse, with 8000 inhabitants, all Mussulmans; there are some ruins of no interest, Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 841) mentions two bishops: Strategius, present at the Council of Chalcedon (451); St. John, whose feast is celebrated 5 Dec. and who lived under Leo the Isaurian; at the Council of Nice (787), the see was represented by the priest Gregory. The earliest Greek "Notitia Episcopatuum" of the seventh century places the see among the suffragans of Synnada, and it is still attached to this metropolis as a titular see by the Curia Romana. But from the ninth century until its disappearance as a residential see, it was a suffragan of Amorium. See the "Basilii Notitia" in Gelzer, "Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani" (Leipzig, 1890), 26.
LEAKE, Asia Minor, 53; RAMSAY, Asia Minor, 232.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Polytheism

From volume 12 of the work.
The belief in, and consequent worship of, many gods. See the various articles on national religions such as the Assyrian, Babylonian, Hindu, and the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome; see also ANIMISM, FETISHISM, TOTEMISM, GOD, MONOTHEISM, PANTHEISM, etc.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Polycarpus

From volume 12 of the work.
The title of a canonical collection in eight books composed in Italy by Cardinal Gregorius. It is borrowed chiefly from the collections of Anselm and from the "Anselmo Dedicata". Writers generally date it about 1124 because it includes a decretal of Callistus II (died 1124), but some place it prior to 1120 or 1118, date of the death of Bishop Didacus, to whom the collection is dedicated, and regard the Callistus decretal as an addition. The dedicatory epistle and the titles were published by the Ballerini ("De antiquis collectionibus et collectoribus canonum", part IV, c. xvii in "P. L.", LVI, 346, Paris, 1865), and the rubrics by Theiner ("Disquisitiones criticæ in præcipuas canonum et decretalium collectiones", Rome, 1836, 356 sqq.). Extracts from Book IV were published by Mai, "Nova bibliotheca patrum", VII, iii, 1-76 (Rome, 1852-88).
PHILLIPS, Kirchenrecht, IV (Ratisbon, 1851), 135-6; SCHERER, (Gratz, 1886), 240; WERNZ, Jus Decretalium, I (2nd ed., Rome, 1905), 331, 333.
A. VAN HOVE
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Polydore Vergil

From volume 15 of the work.
Born at Urbino about 1470; died there probably in 1555. Having studied at Bologna and Padua, he became successfully secretary to the Duke of Urbino and chamberlain to Alexander VI. He became famous by two early works, "Proverbiorum libellus" and "De inventoribus rerum", which attained extraordinary popularity. In 1501 the pope sent him to England as a sub-collector of Peterspence. He became intimate with Henry VII, who in 1505 commissioned him to write the history of England, and he obtained much preferment, including the archdeaconry of Wells. On 22 Oct., 1510, he was naturalized as an English subject. Subsequently to a visit to Rome in 1514, he offended Wolsey who had entrusted him with business, and was imprisoned and deprived of his sub-collectorship. Though finally released, he avenged himself by writing a hostile view of Wolsey in his history, which profoundly influenced later English historians. This work was published in 1533 and is specially valuable for his account of Henry VII's reign. In the third edition (Basle, 1555) the work is continued from 1509 to 1538. He is the first of the modern historians, consulting authorities, weighing evidence, and writing a connected story, not a simple chronicle. His other works are too numerous to specify. Throughout the religious changes he remained loyal, though not a fervent, Catholic. He kept in touch with Italy by frequent visits, and the religious changes under Edward VI led him to return there to spend his last years in his native land.
There is no complete biography, but references to him and his career are found in all the numerous sources for the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. The best connected accounts are: ELLIS, Prefaces to the History of England published by the Camden Society (London, 1844); ARCHBOLD in Dict. Nat. Biog., s.v.
EDWIN BURTON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pomaria

From volume 12 of the work.
A titular see in Mauretania Cæsarea. It is north of Tlemcen (capital of an arrondissement in the department of Oran, Algeria) and in view of the ruins of Agadir, which was built itself on the ruins of Pomaria. Named after its orchards, Pomaria was formed under the shadow of the Roman camp. At Agadir and in the outskirts may be found numerous Latin inscriptions principally from the Christian epoch, the most recent from the seventh century, and many with the abbreviation DMS, which had evidently lost all pagan meaning. We know of but one bishop, Longinus, mentioned in the list of bishops of Mauretania Cæsarea, who was summoned by King Huneric, returned to Carthage in 484 and was condemned to exile. He was praised by Victor of Vita, Gregory of Tours, and Fredegarius; the martyrology of Usuard inserts his name on 1 Feb. At the end of the eighth century Idris I founded Agadir on the site of Pomaria; on the fall of the Idrisite dynasty, Agadir was the capital of the Beni-Khazer and Beni-Yala, emirs of a Berber tribe, vassals of the Ommiads of Spain. Tlemcen, founded at the end of the eleventh century by Yussef ben Tashfin, was reunited to Agadir and finally supplanted it.
TOULETTE, Géographie de l'Afrique chrétienne. Maurétanies, 117.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Polidoro (da Caravaggio) Caldara

From volume 3 of the work.
An Italian painter, born at Caravaggio, 1492 (or 1495); died at Messina, 1543. He passed his boyhood in poverty and misery, leaving Caravaggio when he was eighteen years old to seek work. Going to Rome, he was employed to carry mortar for the artists in the Vatican who were painting frescoes for Leo X. He watched them copying Raphael's designs, and soon emulated them so successfully that he attracted Raphael's attention and became his pupil. Maturino and Udine, for whom he prepared plaster, were his first instructors. He studied the antique, and the friezes and other ornaments he made for Raphael's pictures are noted for their appropriateness and Athenian purity. Caldara was the first of the Roman masters to employ chiaroscuro, probably from his profound study of the antique; and colour was a secondary consideration with him. He decorated the exterior of many Roman palaces in sgraffito, a form of painting where, over a dark background, often stucco, a lighter-coloured layer was painted, and designs, scratched through the light layer, only showed dark on light (en camaïeu).
These designs are known today only from reproductive etchings and engravings from the hands of Alberti and Goltzius. When Rome was sacked in 1527, Caldara went to Naples, where he was helped by Andrea de Salerna. He started a school and received many commissions for frescoes. He left Naples for Sicily and in Messina attained great success. He painted the triumphal arches erected on the return of Charles V from Tunis, and in 1534 produced his masterpiece, "Christ Bearing the Cross". This oil is grand in conception and composition, and is treated in a far more naturalistic style than any of his other paintings. Some of his noteworthy works are: friezes in the Vatican; "Psyche received into Olympus", in the Louvre, Paris; "Passage of the Red Sea", in the Brera, Milan.
LIPPMAN, Engraving and Etching, tr. HARDIE (New York, 1906); LöBKE, Geschichte der italienischen Malerei (Stuttgart, 1878); MUTHER, History of Painting, tr. KRIEHN; WORNUM, Epochs of Painting Characterized (London, 1847).
LEIGH HUNT