Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/163

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COLOMBO


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COLONNA


hands of religious congregations. These are as fol- lows: Brothers of Christian Schools, 47 engaged in teaching; native Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, 20, teaching; Sisters of the Good Shepherd, 23. over schools and orphanages ; Sisters of the Holy Family, 23, schools, orphanages, and hospitals; Franciscan Sisters (Missionaries of Mary), 49, school, orphanages, and hospitals; native Sisters of St. Francis Xavier, 117, teaching; native Sisters of St. Peter, 108, teach- ing. Three of the iirincipal government hospitals have been entrusted to the sisters. A government reformatory for youthful offenders is in charge of the dilates, the number of boys varying from 1.50 to 200. .\liovit the same number of old people are provided with a liome by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Co- lombo. In the 397 schools of the archdiocese 35,520 children are educated. Of these schools 202 are for boys, w ith 20,826 pupils, and 195 for girls with 14,694 pupils. The management of the schools is entirely in the hands of the missionaries ; but there is a govern- ment examination every year, on the results of which a grant is paid to the superintendent of schools. The archdiocese maintains for teachers of both sexes nor- mal schools recognized by the Government. Higher education in English is provided for girls at the vari- ous convents in Colombo, and for boys at St. Josejih's College (800 students) conducted by the Oblate Fathers. The training of aspirants for the priesthood is carried on in two seminaries: the preparatory sem- inary of St. Aloysius with 24 students and St. Ber- nard's theological seminary with 20 students. There are 9 orphanages, 1 for boys and 8 for girls, which pro- vide education for 673 orphans (104 boys and 569 girls). Two papers, both bi-weekly, are published at the Colombo Catholic Press, the "Ceylon Catholic Messenger" in English, and the "Nanartha Pradi- paya" in Cingalese. The management and editorial control of both papers are in the hands of the mission- aries. A Cingalese monthly of a religious character is issued from the press of the boys' orphanage. Co- lombo has conferences of St. Vincent de Paul and of the Ladies of Charity. The Bonjcan Memorial Hall is the head-quarters of the Ceylon Catholic I'nion, estab- lished in 1902, with branches in all the principal parts of the island. A Catholic Club was opened in 1900.

BATPANblER, Ann. punt. calh. (190S); Catholic Director;/ (Madras, 190S); Ceylon Handbook and Directorii (Colombo, 190S); Tennent, A History of Ceylon (London, 1S60).

Antoine Coudert.

Colombo, Matted Realdo, Italian anatomist and discoverer of the pulmonary circulation, b. at Cre- mona in 1516; d. at Rome, 15.59. He studied medi- cine at Padua with Vesalius, became his assistant, and in 1544 his successor a.s lecturer on surgery and anat^ omy. In 1545 Cosimo de' Medici, who was reorganiz- ing the University of Pisa, held out such inducements to Colombo that he became the first professor of anat- omy there. Colombo occupied this post until 1548, when he received a call to the chair of anatomy in the Papal LTnivcrsity at Rome. This he held until his death. During all his years of teaching at Padua, Pisa, and Rome, he continued to make original re- searches in anatomy. The results of his investiga- tion were published imder the title, "De Re Anato- mica Libri XV" (Venice, 1.5.59). The most important feature of this book is an accurate and complete ilc- .scription of the pulmonary circulation. Colombo says: "The blood is carried by the artery-like vein to the lungs, and being there made thin is brought back thence together with air by the vein-like artery to the left ventricle of the heart." Colombo knew that this was an original observation, for he ad<ls: "This fact no one h.as hitherto observed or recorded in writing; yet, it may be most readily observed by any one." Harvey, in his work, "On the Motion of the Heart and Hlood in Animals", quotes Colombo more than once and gives him credit for many origi-


nal observations in anatomy. Apparently lest there should be any diminution of Harvey's glory, English writers on the history of medicine have, as a rule, failed to give Colombo the credit which he deserves and which Harvey so readily accorded him. Colombo made as many as fourteen di.ssections in one year at Rome. Several hundred people sometimes attended liis anatomical demonstrations, and cardinals, arch- bishops, and other high ecclesiastics were often pres- ent. Colombo is famous as a teacher of anatomy and physiology, and first used living animals to demon- strate various functions, especially the movements of the heart and lungs. He said one coidd learn more in an hour in this way than in three months from Galen. His book was dedicated to Pope Paul IV, of whom he was an intimate jiersonal friend.

The best authoritv for Colombo's work in anatomy is his De Re Anatomicd {\in\ce.\hm; Paris, 1562V The most com- plete life is that by Tolun in Pfiugers Archie. XXI-XXII. In English there is a good sketch by Fisher, Annals of Anal- omy and Surgery (Brooklyn, 1880).

James J. Walsh.

Colonia, a titular see of Armenia. Procopius (De sedif.. Ill, iv) informs us that Justinian restored a fortress which had been captured by Pompey, then fortified it and called it Colonia. This city figures in the "Synecdemus" of Hierocles and in the "Notitia; episcopatuum" as a suffragan of Sebaste, metropolis of Armenia Prima. Lequien (I, 429) mentions five bishops: Euphronius, later transferred to Nicoiiolis, a friend and correspondent of St. Basil; Eustathius in 458; St. John the Silent, who died a monk at St. Sabas, near Jerusalem, in 557; Proclus, e.xiled by the Emperor Justin in 518 as a Severian; Callinicus in 680 and 692. Benay published in " Echos d'Orient" (IV, 93) a curious Byzantine inscription concerning a drungarius of Colonia. In the ninth century the city was the capital of a Byzantine theme. Its modern name is Koilu Hissar; it is the chief town of a caza in the vilayet of Sivas, and has about 1800 inhabitants, among them 600 Greeks, 200 Armenians, and a few Protestant and Catholic Armenians (Cuinet, Turquie d'Asie, I, 792). Another Colonia, later Tax- ara, situated in Cappadocia Tertia, was a suffragan of Mocessus; seven bishops are mentioned by Lequien (I, 413). S. Petrides.

Colonia, Dominique de. See Drama, Jesuit.

Colomia, a celebrated family which played an im- portant role in Italy during medieval and Renais- sance times, and which still flourishes in several branches in Rome and Naples. It is commonly sup- posed to have been originally an offshoot of the Counts of Tusculum, deriving the family name from the castle of Colonna situated on a spur of the Alban hills, some five miles from Tusculum. The name makes its first appearance in authentic history in the person of Petrus de Columna, owner of Colonna. Monte Porzio, and Zagarolo, and claimant of Palestrina, whose cas- tles were seized by Paschal II, a. d. 1101, in punish- ment of his lawless depredations. With the destruc- tion of Tusculum by the Romans in 1 191, the name of the ancient counts disappears forever, whilst the Colonna come prominently to the front. From the first their policy was anti-papal and Cihibelline, not so much from love of the emperors as from the desire to maintain towards the popes an attitude of quasi- independence. They exercised plenary jurisdiction over their va.ssals in matters civil and criminal and frequently contracted alliances with foreign potentates without consulting the wishes or interests of their sovereign. They were in perpetual feud with their Guelph neighbo\irs, in particular with the rival house of the Orsini. They so frequently inoirred the papal censure^s on account of their rebellious conduct, that it became the general but erroneous opinion of the Ro- man people that the yearly excommunication of the