Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/520

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SANTIAGO


462


SANTINI


21 June, 18SS, Archbishop Mariano Casanova issued the decree founding the Cathohc University and nam- ing as its first rector D. Joaquin Larrain Gandarillas, titular Bishop of MartjTopohs. The university was solemnly opened on 31 March, 1SS9; at that time it comprised only the faculties of law and mathematics, and an institute for literary and commercial courses. There was no further addition until 1896, when mathematics was divided into the two courses of civil engineering and architecture. In 1900 the Institute of Humanities was founded, adding a department of letters to the courses at the university. The princely legacy left in 1904 by D. Frederico Scott o and his mother made possible the foundation of an industrial and agricultural school, a course of much utility in this country where scientific industry and agriculture are still in their infancy. In 1905 a sub-course of en- gineering was founded to fiU a much felt want for the training of foremen and assistants to the engineers. The faculty of medicine, although undoubtedly the most necessary, has not yet been established, as the cost of maintaining it would be more than that of all the others combined. Up to the present time no facultv of theology has been founded, owing to vari- ous difficulties, but it wiU not be long before this also will be organized. The attendance in 1910 for the courses of law, mathematics, agriculture, industries, and engineering was 619, with 51 professors; and in the Institute of Humanities 400, with 44 professors. The university has chemical, physical, electrical, and mineralogicallaboratories and a library of more than 30,000 volumes. Its property', movable and immov- able, amounts to about five million francs.

The Catholic I'niversity, although in many respects incomplete, is beginning to exercise considerable in- fluence in the country on account of the increasing number of students and the high standing of its pro- fessors. Many of the text books compiled by them have been adopted by the State University. Much would be added to its power and development if the state would authorize it to confer degrees which would enable those holding them to exercise the professions of lawyer, engineer, or doctor and occupy such pub- lic offices as require these decrees. Up to the present the official university reserves this right exclusively to itself, imposing at the same time its programme and plan of studies on the Cathohc University. Since its foundation the university has had three rectors. The first was the titular Bishop of Martyropolis later created Archbishop of Anazarba, D. Joaquin Larrain Gandarillas, the most eminent of the educators of Chile, for to him principally is due the foundation of the seminary and the Catholic University of Santiago. He devoted his entire private fortune and that of many of his relatives to the maintenance of these two great works. The second was the titular Bishop of Amatonte, D. Jorge Montes, who on account of poor health was obliged to resign shortly after his appoint- ment. The third is the Ilev. Rodolfo Vergara Anti- rncz, journalist, orator, poet, and author of variou.s histfjric and didactic works which have attracted con- siderable notice. Among the most noted professors of the university may be mentioned: D. Abdon Ci- fuentes, senator and Minister of State, who has de- voted his entire life to working for the freedom and the progress of private education; D. Clemente Fabres, D. Carlos Kis<^>patr6n, D. Ventura Blanco Viel, D. Iiam6n Gutierrez, D. Enrique Richard Fontecilla, all noted jurists and public men; D. Joaquin Walker Martinez, Chilian representative to the United States and the Argentine Hepublio, parliamentary orator and stat<^'Hrnan ; D. Miguel Cruchaga, author of a Irfatise on intf-rnational law; I). Luis liarros Mendez, litterateur; I). Francisco de Borja Kclifverria, econo- mist and Bfjciologist; Canon P^steban Munoz Donaso, orator and fxjet; and Rev. Ram6n Angel Jara, the present Bishop of Serena.


Atitiario de la Universidad Catdlica de Santiago de Chile, 3 vols.; Catdlogo de los eclesidxticos de . . . Chile (Santiago, 1911).

Carlos Silva Cotapos. Santiago de Compostela See Compostela. Santiago de Cuba. See Cuba.

Santiago del Estero, Diocese op (Sancti Jacobi DE EsTERo), in the Argentine Republic, erected 25 March, 1907, suflfragan of Buenos Aires. Its terri- tory' exactly corresponds with that of the State of San- tiago, bounded by the States of Salta and Tucuman on the N. W., La Rioja on the W., Cordova on the S., Sante Fe on the E., and by the Territory of El Chaco on the N. E. It has an area of nearly 40,000 sq. mile^ and a population averaging about 5 to the sq. mile.

Santiago, the cathedral city as well as the capital of the state, is situated on the Rio Dulce, about forty miles north of the Salinas Grandes, or Great Salt Marshes, of Northern Argentina. Although the newest diocese in the republic, its capital was the seat of the first bishop in that part of South America. The ecclesiastical organization of what afterwards became the Argentine Republic began in 1570 under St. Pius V, who erected what was at first known as the Diocese of Tucuman. This, the original diocese of all but the seaboard of that country, covered a vast and almost unexplored territory of the same name. The Spanish settlement of Santiago del Estero was then designated as the seat of the Bishop of Tucuman, and its church, built about 1570, was the cathedral. Not until nearly one hundred and thirty years later (1699), in the episcopate of Juan Manuel Mercadillo, O.P., was the see transferred to Cordova. The old diocese thenceforward took its name from its capital, being known as the Diocese of Cordova. Thus Cordova is still regarded as the most ancient diocese of Argentina, while the most ancient cathedral in the country is at Santiago del Estero. Early in the nineteenth century the Diocese of Salta was formed out of that part of the Cordova jurisdiction which included Tucuman and Santiago; from a portion of the Salta jurisdiction the (new) Diocese of Tucuman was formed in 1897, and from this new diocese, again, was formed, ten years later, the Diocese of Santiago del Estero.

For three years after its erection the diocese was governed by Right Rev. Pablo Padilla, Bishop of Tucuman, as administrator Apostolic, until in 1907 Right Rev. Juan Martin Janiz, its first bishop, was appointed by Pius X. It is divided into twelve parishes. The parochial clergy are few for so large a territory — not more than one priest to each parish, besides a vicar forane and the bishop's personal staff. There are, however, three schools for boys, and an orphanage under the care of religious at the cai)ital, besides several other approved Catholic educational institutions.

Guia edes. de la Rep. Araenlina (Buenos Aires, 1910); Bat- TANDIER, Annuaire pont. (1911).

E. Macpherson.

Santiago de Venezuela. See Caracas, Arch- diocese OF.

Santini, Giovanni Sante Gaspero, astronomer, b. at Cai)rese, in Tuscany, 30 Jan., 1787; d.at Padua, 26 June, 1877. He received his first instruction from his parental uncle, the Abate Giovanni Battista Santini. This excellent teaciher implanted at the same time the deep religious sentiments which San- tini prc.scrvcd lliroughout his life. After fitii.sliing his philosopliic'i! studies in the school year 1X01-2, at the seminary of I'rato, he entered in 1802 the Uni- versity of Pisa. He very .soon abandoned the study of law in order to devote himself, under the direction of I'rof. Paoli and Abate Pacchiano, exclusively to mathematics and the natural sciences. It ai)i)earH that at Pisa Santini still wore the cassock. This cir-