1854. There were seventeen priests in the diocese then to care for the spiritual needs of a very mixed population largely of Spanish origin. The opening of the mining era of the early fifties brought a large accession of other settlers, and Bishop Amat, visiting Europe to obtain additional aid for his diocese, brought back Lazarist priests and Sisters of Charity with him. He was given permission by the Holy See, in 1859, to call himself Bishop of Los Angeles, and changed his residence to that city. There, under his inspiration, the Lazarists opened St. Vincents College and the Franciscan Brothers took charge of the parochial schools. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were also introduced. A serious spinal affection forced Bishop Amat to ask for a coadjutor and his vicar-general, the Rev. Francis Mora, was so consecrated 3 July, 1873. He had begun a new cathedral and lived to see it dedicated 9 April, 1876. When he died, at the age of sixty-seven, the progress of the diocese under his jurisdiction was indicated in the increase to 51 priests, 32 churches, 15 chapels, and 32 stations, 6 academies and substantial parochial schools, asylums, and other charitable institutions.
Shea, Hist. of Cath. Church in U. S. (New York, 1904); Reuss, Biog. Cyclo. of the Cath. Hierarchy of the U.S. (Milwaukee, Wis., 1898).
Amathus, name of two titular sees, one in Syria, suffragan of Apameia, with an episcopal list known from 449 to 536; the other on the southern coast of Cyprus, whose episcopal list reaches from the fourth century to 787. The latter place was one of the most ancient Phœnician settlements on the island, and long maintained the customs and character of an Oriental town. It was famous for the worship of Aphrodite and Adonis, also of the Tyrian god Melkart. The great wheat-fields and rich mines of the Cypriot city were celebrated in antiquity (Ovid, Met., X, 220).
Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr., I, 118; Mas Latrie, Trésor de chronol, (Paris, 1895), 1894.
Amaury I–IV, Kings of Jerusalem. See Jerusalem.
Amazones, (or Manãos) Diocese of, a South American diocese, dependent on San Salvador of Bahia. Amazonas, the largest of the states of Brazil, lies south of British Guiana, Venezuela, and Columbia, and between Peru on the west and Pard on the east. It has an area of 732,250 square miles, and in 1900, had a population of only 207,000. Manãos. the capital, is its chief port. Amazonas was once a part of Pará but became a state in 1850.
Erected a see by Leo XIII, 27 April, 1892, it has 350,000 Catholics, 800 Protestants, 24 parishes, 19 secular priests, 13 regular priests, 41 churches or chapels, and 105 Catholic schools.
Battandier, Ann. pont. cath. (1900).
Ambarach, Peter (also called Benedictus and Benedetti, these names being the equivalents of the Arabic ambarak "blessed"), a Maronite Orientalist, b. at Gusta, Syria, June, 1663; d. in Rome, 25 August, 1742. He was educated by the Jesuits in the Maronite college in Rome, 1672–85, and on his return to Syria in the latter year was ordained priest. Having been sent to Rome on business concerning the Maronite Church, he was requested by Cosmo III de Medici to organize an Oriental printing establishment at Florence, and then was given the chair of Hebrew at Pisa. In 1708 he entered the Society of Jesus. Shortly after this Clement XI appointed him a member of the commission charged to bring out a corrected edition of the Septuagint. His chief work is an edition of the Syriac works of St. Ephrem with Latin translation, of which, however, he had only published two volumes when death overtook him; the third was completed by Stephen Assemani.
Sommervogel, Bib. de la c. de Jésus (Paris, 1890), I, 1295.
Ambition, the undue craving for honour. Anciently in Rome the candidates for office were accustomed to go about (ambire) soliciting votes. This striving for popular favour was spoken of as ambitio. Honour is the manifestation of a certain reverence for a person because of the worth or assemblage of good qualities which that person is deemed to have. The excessive desire of distinction is of course a sin, not because it is wrong in itself to wish to have the respect or consideration of others, but because it is assumed that this quest is conducted without proper regard to the mandates of sound reason. This deordination in the desire of, or search for, honour may come about chiefly in three ways. (1) One may want this exhibition of homage for some merit which he really does not possess. (2) A man may permit himself to forget that the thing or things, whatever they may be, which are thought to deserve the testimony of others, are not his in fee simple, but God's, and that the credit therefore belongs primarily to God. (3) A person may be so absorbed in the display of esteem for, or deference towards, himself as to fail to employ the particular degree of excellence which has evoked it for the welfare of others (St. Thomas, Summa Theol., II–II, Q. cxxxi, Art. 1). Ambition as such is not accounted a mortal sin; it may become such either because of the means it uses to compass its object, as for instance, the simoniacal endeavour to obtain an ecclesiastical dignity, or because of the harm done to another. Ambition operates as a canonical impediment in the following circumstances. Those who take their elevation to a church dignity for granted, and, before receiving the requisite formal enabling notice of it, by some overt act demean themselves as if their election were an accomplished fact, are held to be ineligible. The bestowal of the office in this case is likewise considered invalid. Those who accept an election brought about by an abuse of the secular power are also declared ineligible (Corp. Jur. Can. in VI Decret., Bk. I, tit. vi, ch. v).
Ambo (pl. Ambos, or Ambones), a word of Greek origin, supposed to signify a mountain or elevation; at least Innocent III so understood it, for in his work on the Mass (III, xxxiii), after speaking of the deacon ascending the ambo to read the Gospel, he quotes the following from Isaias (xl, 9): "Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength". And in the same connection lie also alludes to Our Blessed Lord preaching from a mountain: "He went up into a mountain—and opening his mouth he taught them" (Matt., v, 1, 2). An ambo is an elevated desk or pulpit from which in the early churches and basilicas the Gospel and Epistle were chanted or read, and all kinds of communications were made to the congregation; and sometimes the bishop preached from it, as in the case of St. John Chrysostom, who, Socrates says, was accustomed to mount the ambo to address the people, in order to be more distinctly heard (Eccl. Hist., VI, v). Originally there was only one ambo in a church, placed in the nave, and provided with two flights of steps; one from the east, the side towards the altar; and the other from the west. From the eastern steps the subdeacon, with his face to the altar, read the Epistles; and from the western steps the deacon, facing the people, read the Gospels. The inconvenience of having one ambo soon became manifest, and in consequence in many churches two ambones were erected. When there were two,
