UBCRnni
217
UBEBIUS
Ccdcmuation Society until the. politioal exi^ncies of
commercial intercourse with other countnes, espe-
oially with England, forced Liberia, 26 July, 1847, to
make a declaration of independence as a sovereign
State. It is divided into tour counties, Mesurado,
Grand Bassa^ Sinou, and Maryland. The capital and
largest town is Monrovia, a seaport on Cape Mesurado,
called after James Monroe^ Inresident of the United
States, imder whose administration the colonizing
scheme was begun. There are no harbours, and ac-
cess to the most important rivers is prevented for ves-
ads of deep draught by a sand-bar. The temperature
Taries from 56 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, with an
average of 80 degrees and a rainfall of about 100 inches
a year. The rainy season begins in May and ends in
November, the hottest month being December and the
coolest August. The climate is d^idly to white men,
African fever being prevalent.
Some 12,000 quasi- American negroes constitute the governing class. With these are affiliated about 30,- 000 who are civilised, native bom^ and native bred. The wflder tribes of the interior, estimated as number- ing about 2,000,000, are the descendants of the ahor- igmes. The Americo-Libcrian settlers are to be found on the sea-coast and at the mouths of the two mast im- portant rivers. Of the native tribes the principal are the Veys, the Pessehs. the Barlines, the Bassas, the Kroos, the Frebos, ana the Mandingos. Outside of the negroes of American origin not many Liberians are Christians. The converts have been made chiefly among the Kroos and the Frebos. Methodist, Bap- tist, Presbyterians, and Episcopalian missions have been established for many years with scant results. As a number of the first American colonists were Cath- dio negroes from Maryland and the adjoining states, the attention of Propaganda was called to their spirit- ual needs and the second Provincial Coimcil of Balti- more in 1833 undertook to meet the difficulty. In accordance with the measures taken, the Very Rev. Ed- ward Barron. Vicar-General of Philadelphia, the Rev. John Kelly or New York, and Denis Pindar, a lay cate- chist from Baltimore, volunteered for the mission and saUed for Africa from Baltimore on 2 DecemWr, 1841. They arrived there safe and Father Barron said the first Mass at Cape Palmas on 10 Feb.^ 1842. After a time, finding tnat he did not receive missionaries enough to accomplish anything practical, Father Bar- ron returned to the United States, and thence went to Rome where he was made on 22 Jan., 1842, Vicar Apo»- totic of the Two Guineas, and titular Bishop of Con- stantia. With seven priests of the Congregation of the B[0ly Ghost he returned to Liberia, arriving at Cape Palmas on 30 Nov., 1843. Five of these priests died on the mission of fever, to which Denis Pindar, the lay cateehist, also fell a victim, 1 Jan., 1844. Bishop BaiTon and Father Kelly held out for two years, and then, wasted by fever, they determined to return to the United States, feeling that it was impossible to vrithstand the climate any longer. Bishop Barron died of yellow fever during an epidemic at Savannah, Georma, 12 Sept., 1854, and after a long puxtorate Fa- iher Kelly died at Jersey City, New Jei-wy, 28 April, 1866.
The Fathers of the Holy Ghost, who took uf) the work, were also forced by the ciimato to abandon it in a couple of years, and the permanent mission lapsed until 26 Feb., 1884. The Fathers of Montfort (Company of Ifary), under Fathers Blanchet and Lorber, tlien laid the foundation of another mission at Monrovia. The president of the republic, Mr. Johnson, and the people generally gave them a cordial welcome, but the sectiArian ministcars organized a cabal against them, and endeavoured to thwart all their efforts to spread the Faith. They made some progress in spite of this, and in the fdlowing year, having received reinforce- ments from France, opened a school for boys and ex- tended their operations Into other places. Father
Bourzeix learned the native language, in which he
compiled a catechism and translated a number of
hymns. Later, when he returned to France, he wrote
a history of Liberia. He died in 1886. Deaths among
the missionaries and the health of the others shattered
by fever forced these priests also to abandon the Li-
beria mission. After this it was visited occasionally
by missionaries from Sierra Leone until 1906, when
Propaganda handed its care over to the Priests of the
African Missions (Lyons), and three Irish priests, Fa-
thers Stephen Kyne, Joseph Butler, and Dennis O'Sul-
livan, with two French assistants, went to work with
much energy, and continue (1910) to make much
progress among the 2800 Catholics the vicariate is
estimated to contain (st»e .\fuica, subtitle The Cath-
olic Church). The British Colony of Sierra Leone on
the west, and the French colonies of the Ivory Coast to
the east, and French Guinea to the north have gradu-
ally l)ecn encroaching on its territory, and internal
troubles over deficits adding other complications, Li-
beria sent in 1908 an urgent appeal to the United
States Government for help to preserve its integrity.
To learn the. conditions there, and find out what as-
sistance could best be given, a commission of three
was appointed by the president; it sailed from New
York 24 April, 1909, and returned in the following
August. The diary kept by Father John Kelly dur-
ing his stay in Liberia was published in the United
States C-atholic Historical Society's " Records '^ (New
York, 1910).
Stock WELL, The Rejjuhlic of Liberia (New York, 1868); An- nual Report Smithsonian Innt. (WiwhinRton, 1905); Piolet, AfiiM. Cath., V (Paris, 1902). 172: Clakk, Liictt of Deceased Bishops U. S., II (New York, 1872), npncnJix; Catholic Al- manac (Baltimore. 1855): Shea, Hist. Cath. Ch. in U. S. (New York. 1856)- KiRLiN, Catholicity in Philadelphia (Philadel- phia, 1909); Fi,TNN, The Cath. Church in New Jersey (Moms- town, 1904). 92 sqq.
Thomas F. Meehan.
Liberius, Pope (352-66). — Pope Julius died on 12 April, according to the " Liberian Catalogue ", and Li- berius was consecrated on 22 May. As this was not a Sunday, 17 May was probably the day. Of his pre- vious life nothing is known save that he was a Roman deacon. An epitaph preserved in a copy by a seventh- century pilgrim is attribute*! to Liberius by De Rossi, followed by many critics, including Duchesne. The principal points in it are that the pope confirmed the Nicene Faith in a council, and died in exile for the Faith, unless we render "a martyr by exile". The epitaph is attributed by Funk to St. Martin I. De Rossi, however, declared tliat no epigraphist could doubt that the verses are of the fourth antl not of the seventh century; still it is not easy to fit the lines to Liberius. The text is in De Rossi, "Inscr. Christ. Urbis Romae", etc., II, S3, 85, and Ducliesne, "Lib. Pont.", I, 209. See De Rossi in "Bull. Archcol. Crist." (1SS3), 5-62; and Von Funk in " Kirchcugcsch. Abhandl.", I (Padorborn, 1897), 391; Grisarin "Kir- chenlex.", s. v.; Suvio, '* Nuovi Studi ", etc.
First Years of Pontikicatk. — By the death of Constans (Jan., 350), (.^otLstantius ha<.I Ix-tcomo master of the whole empire, and was l.)ent on uniting all Christians in a mwlilicd form of Ariniiism. Liborius, like his predecessor Julius, upheld the acijuittal of Athanasius at Sardica, and uiatlo the decisions of Nicapa the test of orthodoxy. After the final defeat of the usurper Magnentius and his death in 3515, Lilxirius, in accordance with the wishes of a large number of Italian bishops, sent legates to the ein[x;ror in Gaul l>egging him to hold a council. Constantius was press- ing the bishops of CJaul to condemn Athanasius, and assembled a number of them at Aries wht^re ho had wintered. The court bisho[)s, who constantly accom-
?anied the emperor, were the rulers of the council, 'he poi)e's legat.es (of whom one was Vincent of Capua, who nad l.)een one of the papal legates at the (Council of Nicyca) w(^re so weak jw to consent to renounce the
