SIERRA
783
SIGEBERT
Sierra Leone, Vicariate Apostolic of (Sierra
Leonis, Sierra-Leonensis), comprises the English
colony of that name and the surrounding territory
from Fi'ench Guinea on the north and east to Liberia
on the south. The capital, Freetown (population,
90,000) is in lat. 8° 30' N. and long. 13° 14' W. of
Greenwich. Its area is 30,000 square miles; popula-
tion, 3,000,000. Its cUmate is most deadly and has
merited for the colony the name "White man's
grave". Yellow fever is endemic. Malaria and he-
moglobinuria are prevalent.
After the American Revolution the English Gov- ernment purchased from native chiefs a tract of land some twenty miles square, and established a colony for negroes disciiarged from the army and navy, and for liberated or runaway slaves who had sought refuge in England. In 1787 about 400 negroes settled there and founded P'reetown. In 1808 it became a crown colony, and is so still. It has a completely-developed system of government.
Protestantism had exclusive control in the colony until Cathohcism appeared in 1864. Amongst many sects Wesleyans predominate, though Anglicans are numerous. All are strongly organized. In the sur- rounding territory the aborigines are pagans. Mo- hammedanism is spreading and becoming a danger- ous enemy to Catholicism.
The history of West-African Catholic missions be- gins in 1843 with the foundation of the Vicariate Apos- tolic of the Two Guineas by Bishop Barron of Phila- delphia with the Holy Ghost Fathers. This vicariate, which after Bishop Barron's departure in 1845 was completely entrusted to these fathers, was divided in 1858, and a special vicariate comprising Sierra Leone, Liberia, and PVench Guinea was confided to Bishop Bresillac, founder of the African Fathers of Lyons. He with his companions died two months after reach- ing Freetown, and the vicariate was given back to the Holy Ghost Fathers. At the earnest request of the Propaganda Fathers Blanchet and Koeberle, C. S. Sp., began work in 1864. The French Guinea mission was begun in 1876 from Freetown, and fostered until its erection into a prefecture in 1897. The Liberian mission was undertaken by Fathers Lorber and Bourzeix, C. S. Sp., in 1884, but because of opposition they withdrew in 1888 and confined their efforts to Sierra Leone. Liberia was erected into a prefecture in 1903 and given to the leathers of Mary. The pres- ent Vicariate of Sierra Leone was administered by the Holy Ghost Congregation since 1864, Fathers Blan- chet and Brown having the title of pro-vicar Apos- tolic. After Father Brown's death in 1903, Rt. Rev. John A. O'Gorman of the American province of the congregation was named vicar Apostolic, and conse- crated at Philadelphia. Despite the difficulty of cli- mate and religious opposition the vicariate has pros- pered. At Father Brown's death there were five mis- sions; since Bishop O'Gorman's consecration six new ones have been added, making eleven in all. There are twenty-eight missionaries, six from the American province. Connected with each mission is a school, and with it a workshop, farm, or plantation. Thus with reUgious and secular instruction the boys receive a practical training. A high school for boys was built at Freetown in 1911.
There are four schools, one high school, and one orphanage for girls, in care of the Sisters of St. Jo- seph of Cluny. The Venerable Mother Javouhey, their foundress, laboured here herself in 1822. Since 1866 her daughters have been in continuous charge. With religious and secular education they teach cook- ing, sewing, and laundering.
Mockler-Ferryman, British West Africa, its Rise and Pro- gress (London, 1900); Stanley and Others, Africa, Its Parti- tion and Its Future (New York, 1898) ; Blanchet, Histoire de la mission de Sierra Leone, 1864-1892 (op. inedit.); Bulletin officiel of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (Paris, 1863- 1911); Ceookb, a Short History of Sierra Leone (Dublin, 1900). JogBPH ByKNE.
Sigebert, Saint, king and martyr, date of birth un-
known; d. about 637, was the stepbrother of Earp-
wald, king of the East Angles. During the reign of
Redwald he Uved an exile in Gaul where he received
baptism and became an ardent Christian. Earpwald
died about 627, and East AngUa seems to have re-
lapsed into anarchy and heathenism for some three
years until Sigebert returned thither, about 631, and
became king. He at once set about the conversion of
his people, being greatly assisted by St. Felix, who
seems to have come over from Gaul with him, and for
whom a see was estabUshed at Dunwich in Suffolk.
Another prominent figure in Sigebert's revival was the
Irish monk, St. Fursey, or Fursa, for whom he built a
monastery at Burghcastle in Suffolk. With the aid
of St. Felix, Sigebert also established a school for boys
on the model of the monastic schools in Gaul, the mas-
ters for it are said to have been supplied from Canter-
bury. The prospects of Christianity now seemed so
bright that Sigebert felt justified in carrying out his
long-cherished design of retiring to a monastery. He
therefore resigned the kingdom to his kinsman, Egric,
received the tonsure, and entered a monastery, said to
have been Bedrichsworth, which later became Bury
St. Edmunds. Not long after this, however, Penda,
the pagan King of Mercia, invaded East Anglia, and
Egric, finding himself unable to repel the invasion,
joined with his subjects in begging Sigebert to lead
them, as he had formerly been a most brave warrior.
In spite of his great unwillingness, Sigebert was
dragged from his cloister and compelled to march at
the head of the army; but, to indicate his profession
as a monk, he refused absolutely to carry any weapons
of war and instead bore only a rod. In the ensuing
battle his army was totally defeated, he and Egric
both perishing in the fight. In the "Acta Sancto-
rum" his life is given under date of 29 October, but
the feast is not now observed even in England.
Bede, Hist, eccles., ed. Giles (London, 1843), II, xx. III, xviii, also in P. L.; Acta SS., Oct., XII, 892-904; William or Malmes- BVRY, Gesta regum, I, xcvii; Idem, Gesta pontificum, 147, both in Rolls Series (London, 1870-1887); Liber Eliensis, ed. Stewart. I (London, 1848), i; Ddgdale, Monasticon anglicanum. III (London. 1840), 98; Pits, De illustribus Angliae script. (Paris, 1619), 108; Stanton, Menology of England and Wales (London, 1887), 35.
G. Roger Hudleston.
Sigebert of Gembloux, Benedictine historian, b. near Gembloux which is now in the Province of Namur, Belgium, about 1035; d. at the same place, 5 November, 1112. He was apparently not a Ger- man, but seems to have been of Latin descent. He received his education at the Abbey of Gembloux and at an early age became a monk in this abbey; after this he taught for a long time at the Abbey of St. Vincent at Metz. About 1070 he returned to Gembloux, where he was universally admired and venerated, and had charge there of the abbey school until his death. While at Metz he wrote the biog- raphies of Bishop Theodoric I of Metz (964-85), of King Sigebert III, founder of the monastery of St. Martin at Metz, and also a long poem on the martyr- dom of St. Lucia, whose reUcs were venerated at the Abbey of St. Vincent. After his return to Gembloux he also wrote similar works for this abbey, namely: a long poem on the martyrdom of the Theban Legion, as Gembloux had rehcs of its reputed leader Exuper- ius; a biography of the founder of the abbey, Wicbert (d. 962); a history of the abbots of Gembloux, and revisions of the biographies of St. Maclovius and the two early bishops of Liege, Theodard and Larnbert.
Later he became a violent imperial partisan in the great struggle between the empire and the papacy. Of the three treatises which he contributed to the contest, one is lost; this was an answer to the letter of Gregory VII, written in 1081 to Bishop Hermann of Metz, in which Gregorj/' asserted that the popes have the rigl;t to excoaununicate kings and to release
