Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/431

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JERUSALEM


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JERUSALEM


salem and other cities, there were Arab Catholics who wished to become priests and to serve their own people, but who had not necessarily a vocation for the Fran- ciscan Order. So the old conditions that reserved practically all cure of souls to Franciscans and sub- niitteil every one to the jurisdiction of the custos — natural enough when there had been no one else to undertake the work — were no longer reasonable now. There was no reason why the Catholics of Palestine should not be governed by an episcopal hierarchy in the normal way. Moved by these considerations Pius IX decided to change the titular Latin patriarchate at Rome into a real see again at Jerusalem. The titular patriarch, Augustus Foscolo (1830^7), was requested to resign. In his place Joseph Valerga was made patriarch in 1847, and ordered to take up his residence in the Holy City (Brief of 23 July, 1847). He was consecrated by the pope himself on 10 October, 1847, and arrived in his patriarchate in January, 1848. He found 4200 Latin Catholics there; at his death in 1872 he. had doubled the number. The succession of these restored Latin patriarchs is: Joseph Valerga, 1847-72; Vincent Bracco, 1873-89; Louis Piavi, 1889-1905. Mgr. Piavi died on 24 January, 1905. After some delay, the present patriarch, Mgr. Pliilip Camassei, formerly Latin Bishop of Sjra, was pro- moted in November, 1906, and entered Jerusalem just before Easter, 1907.

(5) Present Condition of the City. — Jerusalem (El (J lids) is the capital of a sanjak and the seat of a rautasarrif directly dependent on the Sublime Porte. In the administration of the sanjak the mutasarrif is assisted by a coimcil called majlis idara; the city has a municipal government (majlis baladiye) presided over by a mayor. The total population is estimated at 66,000. The Turkish census of 1905, which counts only Ottoman subjects, gives these figures: Jews, 45,000; Moslems, 8,000; Orthodox Christians, 6000; Latins, 2500; Armenians, 9.50; Protestants, 800; Melkites, 250; Copts, 150; Abyssinians, 100; Jacob- ites, 100; Uniate Syrians, 50. During the nineteenth century large suburbs to the north and east have grown up, chiefly for the use of the Jewish colony. These suburbs contain nearly half the present popu- lation.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has jurisdiction over all Latins of Palestine, extending to Egypt on the south, the Latin Delegacy of Syria (seat at Beirut) on the north, and including Cyprus. He is appointed by the Roman Curia (libera collatio S. Pont.), and is personally exempt from Turkish author- ity (still nominally under the protectorate of France). He is represented in the majlis. The patriarchate has no suffragan sees. The Custos Terras Sanctce re- tains the use of episcopal insignia and certain rights of admission to the holy places; otherwise, he must now be counted only as the Provincial of the Fran- ciscans. Appointments to the "Order of the Holy Sepulchre" (a military order of knighthood which began with the crusades and continues as a .small dignity given to deserving Catholics), formerly made by the custos, are now in the hands of the patriarch. The patriarchal church in theory is the Holy Sepul- chre. But since Catholics have only alternative rights there with the Orthodox and .Armenians, Fos- colo built a |)ro-cathedral near the Jaffa Gate (to the north): the patriarch's house and a seminary adjoin this church. But the patriarch celebrates the func- tions of Holy Week and others at the Holy Sepulchre according to the rights conceded to Catholics, which are carefully drawn up and enforced by the Govern- ment. The Franciscan custos lives at the Convent of St. Saviour to the north of the Muristan. This con- vent is the Franciscan head-quarters at Jerusalem. It was originally a Georgian monastery, and was ac- quired by the friars in 1551. Next to it is the large parish church of St. Saviour, finished in 1885 at the VIII.— 24


expense of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I; the Casa Nuova (hospice for pilgrims) is close at hand. Then there are an orphanage, a school, a library, printing-press, etc., all in charge of the friars, clus- tered around the convent. The Franciscans have also the little convent of the Holy Sepulchre with the "Chapel of the .\pparition," that forms the northern part of the group of buildings at the Anastasis. This has been Franciscan property since the thirteenth century (P. Barnabe Mei.stermann's " Nouveau Guide" contains an excellent plan of the .\nastasis, coloured according to the possessions of the various religions). Six or seven priests and as many lay- brothers are sent from the convent of St. Saviour to reside here for periods of three months in turn. These are the "Fathers of the Holy Sepulchre" who are always on guard to celebrate the Latin Offices receive pilgrims, and maintain our traditional rights. They have a hard time while they are on duty. There is no way out of the convent except by the <loor to the


MoSQDE OF AqSA, JERUSALEM

(Formerly Christian)

whole complex on the south. This door is locked by the Turkish guardians at night, so the friars are locked in. Their food is brought to them from St. Saviour, and passed through a wicket in the great door every day. Formerly the residence in the narrow damp convent shut in among the other buildings, which they do not leave during their time of office, was very injurious to their health. But in 1869 Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, when he made his pilgrim- age to Jerusalem, obtained from the Turkish govern- ment some improvement in the ventilation of the convent and leave to build a terrace and a belfry behind it. In 1875 the friars rang their bells to summon Catholics to their services for the first time at this place since centuries (the Orthodox do not use bells but clappers — symantra; bells are an abomina- tion to Moslems). The third Franciscan convent in Jerusalem is by the Chapel of the Scourging in the Tarlq Bab Sitti Miriam, opposite the Antonia castle. This property belonged to them from the time of the Crusades till 1618. It was then taken away by the Pasha and turned into a stable. It was given back in 1838, and restored at the expense of King Maximilian of Bavaria.

Other Latin properties in Jerusalem are the College of St. .\nn for Melkite clergy governed (since 1878) by Cardinal Lavigerie's Peres blancs near the Bab Sitti Miriam (Gate of the Lady Mary), the Dominican convent and Ecole biblique at St. Stephen outside the Damascus Gate (1884), the great French Hospice "Notre Dame de France", directed by the .\ugustin- ians of the .Assumption outside the walls to the north- west near the Bab ' Abdu-l'hamld (1887). the Benedic- tine monastery with a seminary for Syrian Uniates on the Mount of Olives (1899), the new German Bene-