SIBBEL
767
SIBERIA
Sibbel, Joseph, sculptor, b. at Dulmen, 7 June,
1850; d. in New York, 10 July, 1907. As a boy he
evinced the inchnation for cutting ornaments and
figures from wood, which attracted the attention of
his teacher, who urged the parents of the boy to send
him to Miinster, Westphaha. At the estabhshment
of the wood carver, Friedrich A. Ewertz, Sibbel
developed a genius for ecclesiastical sculpture. He
spent his leisure time in visiting the studio of the
sculptor Achterman, where he acquired the art of
modelling in clay. In 1S73 he emigrated to Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. Here he joined several other artists
from the same workshop, who had established an
atelier for ecclesiastical sculpture, mostly in wood.
Wlien this enterprise failed, he tried his hand at
secular sculpture with a certain Rebisso. When this
establishment also failed, Sibbel came to New York,
where he established the studio from which issued his
many works. Here the difficult task confronted him
of competing with the mechanical manufacture of
pseudo-art with which the churches were being fiUed,
and which gave them a stereotyped and monotonous
decoration. To emulate foreign ecclesiastical decora-
tion was his aim. His first work in New York wa.s a
lectern, cast in bronze, for the Episcopal Stewart
Memorial Cathedral in Garden City, Long Island.
Here the young artist broke loose from the ordinary
form by placing religious groups in front of the stand.
Below the customary eagle with spread wings he
designed an upright figiu-e of the Saviour blessing a
group at His feet. The sermon desk proper he
adorned with a symbolical group of three figures,
typifying youth, maturity, and age, listening to the
word of God from above.
It was not until he furnished for the cathedral at Hartford, Connecticut, a .series of alto-relievos, prom- inent among which was an altar picture representing the Child Christ disputing with the Scribes in the temple, that the Catholic churches began to appreciate him. These and a series of Stations of the Cross were cast in imitation alabaster, and attracted great attention. Still more admirable was his colossal statue of Archbishop Feehan of Chicago. His works showed complete emancipation from the convention- ahty of the cloister-art of modern times. His best- known work is the heroic and delicately wrought statue of St. Patrick in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Here also are to be found his statues of St. Anselmo, St. Bernard of Clairvau.x, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and St. Bonaventure.
The two heroic panels, representing "Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted" and "The Death of St. Joseph", erected in the Church of St. Francis Xavier at St. Louis, are of unique conception. These groups, each twelve feet high and eight feet wide, were carvea from one block weighing nearly nine tons. The four heroic statues at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, New York, must be classed as the final step in his emancipation from conventionality. These figures represent Father .Jogues, S.J., the martj'red apostle of the Mohawk Iiuliaiis; St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized saint of the New World; St. Turibius; and Catherine Tagawitha, the Indian maiden, and first convert of the Indian race. In these statues the artist ventured on a new path in religious sculpture, portraying typical American subjects. Among his latest works was the exterior and interior statuary decoration of St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburg. Among these statues are represented the Apostles and Doctors of the Church, executed in Indian hme- stone. In the conception of each statue there is ex- pressed a new idea. Most noteworthy is the marble statue representing Purgatory. Here the artist repre- sents in two figures a very complex idea. Out of the flames of torture there rises a female figure, symbolical of a liberated soul casting off the veil of darkness and beholding the hght of eternal reward. Below, there
appears a still afflicted soul, represented by a wan
rnale figure imploring intercession. Characteristic of
Sibbel's works is the pleasing tendency toward free-
dom from conventionality. They evince originahty
of design, though still in accord with history and
tradition. His statues are pervaded by a pleasing
reahstic spirit, which gives to the dull and lifeless
marble a form that appeals to the heart and inspires
devotion and prayer.
Akmin Sibbel.
Siberia, a Russian possession in Asia forming the northern third of that continent; it extends from the Ural mountains to the Pacific Ocean and from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to about 50° north latitude. It has an area of 4,786,730 square miles and in 1897 had 5,758,822 inhabitants. Classified according to race its population included: 4,659,423 Russians, 29,- 177 Poles, 5424 Germans, 61,279 Finno-Ugrians (Mordvinians, Ostiaks, Syryenians, etc.), 476,139 Turko-Tatars (Tatars, Yakuts, Kasakkirghizes), 288,589 Buriats, 11,931 Samoyedes, 66,269 Tunguses, 31,057 Pala;o-Asiatics, or Hyperboreans (Yukaghirs, Tchuktchis, Ghilyaks, etc.), 41,112 Chinese, 25,966 Koreans. According to religion the population was estimated later thus: 5,201,250 Orthodox Greeks, 227,720 Raskolniks, 32,530 Catholics, 13,370 Protes- tants, 30,550 Jews, 1,068,800 Mohammedans, 224,- 000 Buddhists, etc. At the beginning of the year
1909 the population was estimated to number about 7,878,500 persons. For purposes of administration Siberia is divided into four governments and six departments.
The Siberian Cathohcs belong to the Archdiocese of Mohileff; according to the Alohileff year-book for
1910 they number almost 74,000. They aic largely Poles or the descendants of Poles and Put liciiians who were banished to Siberia on account of tlieir religion; this was especially the case when the Emperor Nicholas I sought in 1827-39 to convert the tJniat Ruthenians and Lithuanians by force to the Or- thodox Church, and when thousands of Catholics and several hundred priests were deported to Siberia after the Polish revolt of 1863. Great difficulties are connected with the pastoral care of the Catholics on account of the small number or priests and the great extent of territory which the priests must traverse. Very often the priests are obliged to lead a real nomad life in order to be able to visit the mem- bers of their flock at least once a year. When a priest leaves his presbytery at Easter he often does not return from his pastoral tour until Easter of the next year. The priests often break down under the burden of their toil, although they receive relatively good support from the Government which grants them 600 roubles, 30 dessiatines (81 acres) of land, and refunds the; expenses of their journeys. On account of the great distances a canonical visitation of the churches of Siberia by a Catholic bishop was not possible until in 1909, when Bishop Johannes Cieplak, coadjutor of Mohileff, traversed all Siberia and Saghalian. In addition to this canonical visitation interest in the Church among Catholics has been greatly quickened by the missions held by the Redemptorists in 1908, by permission of the Govern- ment, in all to^vns where there were Catholic com- munities; Catholics came to these services from great distances. An actual organization of the ecclesias- tical administration for the Catholics of Siberia will only be possible when an independent diocese is established for Siberia with its see at Irkutsk or Tomsk. This is what the Holy See desires to do but the plan will probably not be carried out soon on account of the attitude of the Russian Government towards the Catholic Church. During the seventh decade of the last century the Catholics had the use of only five churches while now according to the
