CORDOVA
360
CORDOVA
Since the expulsion of the Moriscos and Jews at
the end of the fifteenth century, the Catholic worship
alone has been exercised in the diocese, if individuals
belonging to a few sects are excepted. It is true that
since the eighteenth century the religious fervour of
the Catholics of Cordova hus ((Misi.li.rably diminished,
owing to the assimilation liy the civil laws of the
liberal principles of the i'rench Kevolution, the legal-
ized usurpation of ecclesiastical property, and a posi-
tivism nourished by the literature, the theatre, and the
free press of the day. There remains, nevertheless,
much of the Catholic charity and zeal which distin-
guished the centuries after the reconquest, when
bishops, clergy, and faithful rivalled one another in
generous endowment of hospitals, asylums, and
schools, and placed at the disposal of the Church
a rich patrimony capable of supporting a numerous
clergy and a continuous and splendid public worship.
A steady sectarian propaganda, a lowering of the
moral tone, and religious ignorance have made many
Cordovans quite lax in their Catholic practice; nev-
ertheless, they do not at all wish to appear as desert-
ing the Catholic Faith. The palace of the bishop
faces the former mosque, and in it are located all the
administrative offices of the diocese. The cathedral
clergy is composed of twenty canons, fifteen beneficed
clergymen, and five ecclesiastics charged with various
duties. There are 124 parishes, about 500 priests,
and 269 churches and chapels. The population of
the diocese is about 430,000; that of the city in 1900
was 58,275. The following religious orders and con-
gregations have houses in the city: Jesuits, Carmelites,
Capuchins, Dominicans, Trinitarians, Salesians, and
Diocesan Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Mary, the
last named founded in 1876. In four or five other places
in the tliocese there are also religious houses, among
them convents of Franciscans and Augustinians.
In the near vicinity of Cordova is the solitude (dcsierto) of Our Lady of Belen, a monastery of (fourteen) anchorites under a common rule and lead- ing a very austere life; they do not take sacred or- ders, and are governed by a brother superior (her- mano mayor); their spiritual director is a secular priest. The Salesian Fathers alone are engaged in teaching; the other orders devote themselves to the contemplative life or conduct public worship. There are seventy-seven religious communities of women, of which twenty-seven are in Cordova and the rest scattered throughout the diocese. They number in all 1106 sisters. Some lead the contemplative life, others devote themselves to teaching or to works of charity. The twelve charitable institutions are cared for by 145 Sisters of Charity; among such in- stitutions in the city are four homes for the aged, two refuges for young girls, a hospital for the in- sane, a hospital for chronic diseases with 239 pa- tients, a boys' orphan asylum with 425 inmates, and a foundling asylum containing 131 children. There is also a charitable restaurant {Comedor de la Cari- (lad) in charge of six brothers, which provides good and abundant food for workingmen and poor fami- lies at very modest prices. The religious educational institutes of the city for both sexes number twelve, and the pupils attending them 2023. The college of the Salesian Fathers has 325 boys. Outside of Cor- dova there are several educational and charitable in- stitutions. The Grand Seminary of San Pelagio at Cordova was founded in the sixteenth century by Dr. Mauricio Pazos y Figueroa, and enlarged in the eighteenth by Cardinal Salazar. It has fifteen pro- fessors and 125 ecclesiastical students. Attached to the various parishes are many lay confraternities de- voted to works of charity, or to the support of public worship. Of the early synods held at Cordova, two are imi)ortant, those of '839 and 852. The Acts of the former were first printed by F16rez (Espafia sa- grada, XV; Hefele, IV, 99). It was held against
fanatical heretics, probably from Northern Africa,
and known as "Casiani", who professed loose doc-
trines regarding marriage, rejected veneration of
relics, demanded more rigour in fasting, declared un-
clean certain foods, insisted on receiving the Euchar-
istic Host each in his own hand, etc. The synod of
852 reproved those Christians who voluntarily
sought the occasion of martjTdom and declared that
such had no right to the veneration due to martyrs
(Mansi, XIV, 970; Hefele, IV, 179).
De la Fuente, HUt. ec.'^a de Espana (Madrid, 1S72-75); Gams, Kirchengeschichte von Spanien (Ratisbon, 1S62 sqq.); Gomez Bravo, C'utdlogo de tos obispos de Corduba (Cordova, 1778): Sanchez de Feria, Palestra sagrada, etc. (Cordova, 1782); Ramirez de las Casas-Deza, Indvcador Cordohes, etc. (Cordova, 1837); Ruano, Hist, general de Cordoba (Cordova, 1761) 1 vol.; two in manuscript; Morales (ed.). Ewioflu' Cordw- bensis Opera (Alcald, 1574) in P. L., CXV. 703-960; Boletln ec.<^<> de la diocesis de Cordoba (Cordova, 18.58-1907); Redel, San Rafael en Cordoba (Cordova, 1889); Ramirez de ,\rellano, Paseos por Cordoba (Cordova, 1875).
Manuel Garcia Osdna.
Cordova, Diocese of (Cordubensis in America), in the Argentine Republic, suffragan of Buenos Aires. It was created in 1570, but was vacant from 1819 to 1830, and again from 1841 to 1858. It has 46 par- ishes, 49 churches and chapels, and, by reason of its vast extent (it iiK'Judes the two states of Cordova and Rioja, which in \x'.'-'i had about 570,000 souls), has two auxiliary l>i.siinps. The population of the episco- pal city is 53.1 )()(); one of the two national universities, the second oldest in the New World (1573), is located there, also a national observatory, and a meteoro- logical bureau.
Battandier, Ann. Pont. Cath. (Rome, 1907), 227; Stheit, Kathol. Missionsatlas (Steyl, 1907).
Cordova, Juan de, b. 1503, at Cordova in Anda- lusia, Spain, of noble parents; d. 1595 at Oaxaca, Mexico. It is not certain whether Cordova was his family name, or whether he assumed it from liis native city after he became a Dominican. He first embraced a military career, serving in Flanders as ensign. Pie then went to Mexico, and accompanied Coronado to Nevi' Mexico in 1540-42. In 1543 he entered the Dominican Order at Mexico, and was sent to Oaxaca in 1548, where he acquired the Zapotecan idiom and ministered to the Indians. He was named provincial in 15(58. Brought up under military discipUne, he administered as provincial with such rigour and severity, that there were many complaints against him to the chapter that congre- gated at Yanhuitlan in 1570. He refused to comply with the admonitions of his superiors and change his methods, and was accordingly suspended. With the exclamation: "Benedict us Deus!" he received the notification of his deposition, and, declining the interference of the Viceroy Enriquez in his favour, retired to his convent at Tlacochauaya in Oaxaca where he died after twenty-five j'ears spent in retire- ment and in the study of the Zapotecan languagf and the customs of the natives. His knowledgt of the language was thorough, and he composed " Vocabulario de la Lengua Zapoteca, 6 Diccionaric Hispano-Zapoteco (Mexico, 1571, or, accordin to Ycazbalceta, 1578). The "Arte en Lengui Zapoteca" appeared in 1578 at Mexico. Beside the linguistic part, this book contains a short bu valuable note on the rites and superstitions of th Zapotecan Indians, and an equally important a<c count of their method of reckoning time, which ha been republished by Manuel Orozco v Berra.
D.wii.A Pai.ii.i.a, //is/, dc la Fiindnrion i, Discurso A-ca. (Ms drid. 1596); BuRGOA.Giooni/icnDc'.rn/iri'.i/M Mexico, 1674); Lb6 Y Pinelo, Epilome &ca. (Madrid, 17:i7-17:«); Antonk Bibliotheca hhpana nova (Madrid, 1733-173S): Berist.aijJ^ Biblioteca &ca. (1883); Ycazbalceta, Bibliografia (Me.xico, 1886).
Ad. Fa Bandelier.
Cordova, Pedro de. See Pedro de Cordova.
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