the practical instructions, though his sermons were also most effective. A volume of his parochial sermons was issued in 1901. He published in 1860 a book entitled "Guide for Catholic Young Women", which acquired an abiding popularity. Father Deshon was elected superior general of the Paulist Institute in 1897. At that time houses had been founded in San Francisco, and at Winchester, Tennessee. The last important act of his life was the founding of the Paulist house in Chicago, for which he arranged with Archbishop Quigley in the fall of 1903. Though his life-work was so largely practical, he was noted for his interior spirituality, his favourite saints being the hermits and cenobites of the desert, and his spare time was always devoted to recollection and spiritual reading, in which he had evidently been occupied on the last night of his life, before retiring. He died suddenly of heart failure about midnight, having been just able to ring for assistance, and to receive the last rites of the Church.
SEARLE, The Very Rev. George Deshon, C. S. P., in The Catholic World (1904), LXXXVIII, 569-73. See also contemporary (illegible text)iles, The Catholic News (New York).
GEORGE M. SEARLE.
Desiderius of Cahors, SAINT, Bishop, b. at Obrege (perhaps Antobroges, name of a Gaulish tribe), on the frontier of the Provincia Narbonnensis, of a noble Frankish family from Aquitaine, which possessed large estates in the territory of Albi; d. 15 Nov., 655—though Krusch has called this date in question. In his childhood Desiderius was profoundly impressed by the religious atmosphere of his home. His father Salvius was a pious Christian, and his mother Herchene-freda shows herself a woman of serious religious sentiment in three letters to her son, mentioned in his "Vita". With his two brothers, Rusticus and Syagrius, the boy Desiderius came to the court of the Frankish king Chlotar II (584-629; from 613 sovereign of the whole Frankish Empire), and with other boys of noble family received an excellent education at the Merovingian court-school, whence in the seventh century went forth many capable and holy bishops. Rusticus became a priest and finally Bishop of Cahors; Syagrius became count of the territory of Albi and prefect of the city of Marseilles; Desiderius stayed on at the court where he held the important office of royal Ireasurer, an office that he retained under the new king, Dagobert (629-639), whose confidant he was. After the death of Syagrius (629), he is said to have obtained also the prefectship of Marseilles, but this is not certain.
Faithful to the admonitions of his pious mother, Desiderius led at court the serious holy life of a monk, and administered his office with great fidelity. In 630 his brother Rusticus, the Bishop of Cahors, was murdered, whereupon the clergy and people of that city requested from the king Desiderius as his successor. By a letter of 8 April, 630, Dagobert made known his onsent, and Desiderius was consecrated Bishop of Cahors. His close relations with the Court he used in the interests of his Church. With the most important bishops of his time, many of them educated with hin at the royal court, he maintained an active intercourse, Es his letters prove. He was a zealous promoter of monastic life and founded a monastery in the vicinity f Cahors, the church of which was dedicated to St. Amantius; later on the convent was called after its founder, St. Géry (i. e. Dierius, from Desiderius). He directed also a convent of women, as we see from a letter written by him to the Abbess Aspasia. Under him nd with his support was likewise founded in his dio- ese the monastery of St. Peter of Moissae, later so elebrated. Desiderius was very zealous for Divine ervice and the perfection of the religious life; he built three large basilicas in and near Cahors (St. Maria, St. Peter, St. Julian) and an oratory in honour of St. Martin. For the clergy he was a severe disciplinarian, but was himself foremost with the example of a holy life. He also promoted the temporal welfare of the inhabitants of Cahors, built an aqueduct, and erected or restored the walls and towers that protected the city. Desiderius persuaded the nobles of his diocese to endow richly the churches and monasteries. By his testament (649-650) he gave all his possessions to the cathedral, the churches, and the monasteries of his episcopal city. While resident on his estates in the district of Albi he fell ill and died at his villa of Wistrilingo, which he had presented to the monastery of St. Amantius. His body was carried to Cahors and interred in the church of St. Amantius. We possess a "Vita" of Desiderius written shortly after his death, a collection of his letters, also of letters addressed to him, and an account of miracles that took place at his tomb. His feast is celebrated on the 15th of November.
Vila Desideri, Cadurcæ urbis episcopi, ed. KRUSCH, in Mon. Germ. Hist: Script. (Hanover, 1902), IV, 547-602; ed. MIGNE, P. L., LXXXVII, 219–239; Miracula, ed. MIGNE, loc. cit., 239-246; Desiderii episcopi Cadurcensis epistolæ, ed. ARNDT in Mon. Germ. Hist: Epistolæ (Berlin, 1892), III, 191-214; MABILLON, Dissertatio de anno et die ordinationis itemque obitus Desiderii episc. Cadurcensis in Analecta vet., III, 528 sqq.; VACANDARD, La Schola du palais merovingien in Revue des questions histor. (1897), LXI. 498 sqq. CABIF, Rapports de S. Didier, évéque de Cahors, et de S. Didier, crique d'Auxerre, avec l'Albigeois in Annales du Midi (Toulouse, 1894), 407 sqq.
J. P. KIRSCH.
Desire, BAPTISM OF. See BAPTISM.
Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, JEAN, a French dramatist and novelist, b. in Paris, 1595, d. there, 1676. Early in life he held various offices at court, was counsellor of the king, and secretary of the marine in the Levant. He became a member of the salon of the Hôtel Rambouillet, and contributed the well-known verses on the violet for the "Guirlande de Julie". Later he became a member of the French Academy and its first chancellor. Cardinal Richelieu, his protector, induced him to write for the theatre. His first tragedy, "Aspasie", although a work of no great merit, had a brilliant success, 1636. owing to the cardinal's protection. Among the plays that followed we may mention: "Les Visionnaires", "Scipion", "Roxane", "Mirame", and "L'Europe". The plots of the last two had evidently been inspired by the cardinal; "L'Europe" gives a picture of Richelieu's conception of the political situation in Europe. Of his novel, "Ariane”, La Fontaine declares that its plot is very good; another novel, "Roxane", was left unfinished.
In 1645 he became a devout Christian, and thereafter he devoted his literary abilities chiefly to pious works. He wrote a metrical version of the Office of the Blessed Virgin, and of the "Imitation of Christ", and other religious poems, e. g. "Marie-Magdeleine" or "Grace Triomphante".
In his "Clovis ou la France chrétienne", an epic poem in twenty-six cantos, he attempts to describe the Divine origin of the French monarchy. In this, his greatest work, in spite of its many faults, his patriotism and his love of old legends, which pervade the poem, often give it a peculiar charm. Owing to the criticism of Boileau, who opposed the introduction of the miraculous in literature, the poem proved a failure. In its defence Desmarets wrote an essay comparing French prose and poetry with that of the Grecks and Latins, and thus opened the celebrated controversy between the ancients and the moderns which lasted for many years. In this work he main- tained that the French language is superior to all others, that modern can surpass ancient literature, and that the miraculous intervention of Providence is to be preferred to the machinery of the pagan poets. Desmarets was a consistent adversary of the Jansenists of Port-Royal.
PELLISSON, Histoire de l'Académie française; BAILLET, Jugements des savants (La Haye, 1690); BEAUCHAMPS, Recher-
