Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/137

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PIOXTS


107


PIRANESI


Tliornton, as umpire of the Mixed Claims Commis- sion; that in consequence the Mexican Government was bound to pay to the United States, for the use of the Roman Cathohc archbishop and bishops of Cali- fornia, the sum of $1,420,682.67, in extinguishment of the annuities which had accrued from 1869 to 1902, and was under the further obligation to pay "per- petually" an annuity of $43,050.99, in money having legal currencj- in Mexico. The Government of Mexico has since the date of The Hague award complied with its provisions, and annually pays to the Government of the United States, in Mexican silver, for the use of the Cathohc prelates of California, the sum adjudged to be due from it as a "perpetual" annuity.

Transcript of Record of Proceedings before the Mexican and American Mixed Claims Commission with Relation to . . . Claim No. 493, American Docket (Washington, 1902); Diplomatic Correspondence Relative to "The Pious Fund of the Californias" (Washington, 1902): United States rs. Mexico, . . . Senate Document No. 23, 57th Congress, Second Session (Washington, 1902).

Garret W. McEnerney.

Pious Society of Missions, The, founded by Ven. Vincent Mary Pallotti in 1835. The members of the society are generally called Pallottini Fathers. Its ob- ject is to preserve the Faith among Catholics, espe- cially among emigrants, who are exposed to many grave dangers, and to propagate the Faith among non-Catholics and infidels. The Society of Missions embraces three classes: (1) priests, clerics, and lay- brothers; (2) sisters, who help the priests in their mis- sionary works as teachers and catechists, and who care for the temporal necessities of their churches and houses; (3) affiliated ecclesiastics and lay people. The sisters live a community life, and follow the Rule of St. Francis. They dedicate themselves to the spiritual and temporal welfare of their sex. They are espe- cially engaged in missionary work among the emigrants in America, and the infidels in Africa and Australia. The third class consists of both the secular and regu- lar clergy and the laity who are affiliated with the Society of Missions and help by their prayers, works, and financial aid the propagation of the Faith.

The founder prescribed that his society should be a medium between the secular and the regular clergy. He desired to foster the work of the Catholic Apos- tolate. This desire of his was strikingly symbolized by the annual celebration of the octave (which he inau- gurated in 1836) and the feast of Epiphany in Rome (see Pallotti, Vincent Mary, Venerable). He gave to his society the name of "Catholic Apostolate", after- wards changed by Pius IX to the "Pious Society of Missions". The word Pious isto be taken in the sense of the Latin pia, i. e., devoted or dedicated to God. On 9 Jan., 1835, Pallotti conceived the plan of his in- stitute and submitted it to the Apostolic See, and re- ceived the required approbation through the cardinal vicar, Odescalchi, on 4 April, 1835, as again by an- other rescript on 29 May, and finally by Pope Gregory XVI on 14 July of the same year. Nearly all religious orders and communities favoured the newly-created institute with a share in all their spiritual works and indulgences. In the first years of its existence the Pious Society of Missions had among its affiliated members, twenty-five cardinals, many bishops, Ro- man princes, and religious communities and societies, as also men known in that time as great apostles, Blessed Caspar del Buffalo, the founder of the Congre- gation of the Most Precious Blood and Maria Clausi of the Order of St. Francis of Paula. For a time the So- ciety of the Propagation of Faith in Lyons feared that the new society would interfere with its special work. Pallotti satisfied the Holy See that the purpose of his society was different from that of the Propagation. As the name, "Catholic Apostolate", occasioned ob- jections in some quarters, it was changed to the "Pious Society of Missions".

At the Camaldolese convent near Frascati, he wrote


the constitution and rules for the society, which Pius IX approved ad tempus, 1846. According to them, the members of the society should, after two years' novitiate, promise four things, poverty, chastity, obedience, and refusal of any ecclesiastical dignity, except by obedience to the Holy See. Pope Pius X approved ad experiendum the newly-revised rules and constitutions, December, 1903, for six years, and gave the final approbation on 5 Nov., 1909. The mother-house is in the Ma Pettinari 57, Rome, at- tached to the church of San Salvatore. Pallotti sent his first missionary fathers to London in 1844, to take care of Italian emigrants in the Sardinian Ora- torj'. Rev. D. Marquese Joseph Fail di Bruno built the church of St. Peter in Hatton Garden which is the principal church of the Italians in Lon- don. He was one of the generals of the society, and wrote "Catholic Belief", a clear and concise exposi- tion of Catholic doctrine, especially intended for non- Catholics. Over one million copies of this book were sold, and it was translated into Italian by the author. Under his generalate, the society extended its activ- ity beyond Rome, Rocca Priora, and London to other countries. He received from Leo XIII the church of S. Silvestre in Capite in Rome for the use of the Eng- lish-speaking colony there. In Masio in northern Italy, he established an international college, a mission at Hastings, England, and in London (St. Boniface's) for the German colony; in Limburg, Ehrenbreitstein, and Vallemdar there are flourishing colleges for the missions in Kamerun, West Africa. These missions have now a vicar Apostolic and 12 houses, with 70 schools belonging to it. In South America there are estabHshments at Montevideo, IMercedes, Saladas, and Suipacha; 14 missions of the society in Brazil em- brace a territory three times the size of the State of New York. Rev. Dr. E. Kirner started the first Ital- ian Mission in New York City in 1883, afterwards one in Brooklyn, N. Y., Newark, N. J., Hamraondton, N. J., and Baltimore, Md. In North America the Pallot- tini Fathers have at present over 100,000 Italian em- igrants under their spiritual care. The society, in the year 1909, was divided into four provinces, the Italian, American, English, and German.

John Vogel.

Pipemo. See Terracina, Sezze, and Piperno,

Diocese of.

Piranesi, Giambattista, an Italian etcher and engraver, b. at Venice, 1720; d. in Rome, 9 Nov., 1778. His uncle Lucchesi gave him lessons in drawing, until in 1738 his father, a mason, sent him to Rome to study architecture under Valerian! and engraving under \'asi. He did not return except for a brief visit to his family. In 1741 he brought out a work on arches, bridges, and other remains of antiquity, a notable monument of black and white art; thereafter he opened a gallery for the sale of prints, chiefly his own. He was a rapid and facile worker and etched more than 2000 large plates, full of detail, vigour, and brilliancy. As a rule he drew directly on copper, and hence his work is bold, free, and spirited to a marked degree; his shadows are luminous, but at times there is too much chiaroscuro. The result is a dramatic alternation of black and white, and of light and shade, which deservedly won for him the name of "the Rem- brandt of architecture".

Skilful and artistic printing lent an added charm to his proofs, and the poor impressions that exist in west- ern Europe come from plates that were captured by British warships during the Napoleonic wars. Some of the etchings in his twenty-nine folio volumes are on double-elephant paper, ten feet in length. While he achieved a work of magnitude in pictorial records of Roman monuments of antiquity and of the Renais- sance, and gave immense archjeological, antiquarian, and topographical value to this work, the artistic