S7RA
395
SYRACUSE
Syra, Diocese of (Strensis) a Latin diocese,
suffragan of Naxos, comprising the Island of Syra
of the Cyclades in the /Egean Sea. The island has
an area of about thirty-one square miles and 32,(X)0
inhabitants; it was first called Syria and also Syros,
and appears to have been inhabited by the Phceni-
cians. It waa the country of the swineherd Eu-
maeus who described it at length (Odyssey, XV, 403
sq.); and of the philosopher Pherecydes, the teacher
of Pythagoras. It possessed two leading cities,
Syros (now the modern Hermupolis) and another city
on the western coast where stands to-day Maria
della Grazia. The island played no role in antiq-
uity nor in the Christian epoch; it was not even a
diocese, at a time when the smallest island jjossessed
its bishop. Devastated several times during the Mid-
dle Ages with the other Cyclades by the Sicilians,
Arabs, Turks, and Venetians, it was definitively con-
quered b}' these last in 1207. They kept it until
1522 when the corsair Barbarossa took possession of
it for the Turks; after 1821 it was annexed to the
Hellenic kingdom. The Venetians established there
a Latin bishojiric which was subject to the Arch-
bishopric of Athens until 1525, afterwards to that of
Naxos. The list of titulars may be found in Le
Quien (Oriens christianus. III, S6.5-S68) and in
Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii a'vi, I, 492; II,
267; III, 324). The most celebrated among them
is the Venerable John AndrewCarga, strangled by the
Turks in 1617 for having refused to become a Mus.^ul-
man (P^trides in "Revue do I'Orient chretien", V,
407-422). From the occupation of the island by the
Turks in the sixteenth century, the Greeks established
there a metropolitan: Joseph (Le Quien, op. cit.,
II, 233) is the earliest known, with Symeon who died
in 1594 (Ampelas, "Histoire de Syros", 411) and
Ignatius in 1596 (Miklosich and Mueller, "Actapatri-
archatus constantinopolitani ", V, 461). The island
became for the most part Catholic (Ricaut, "Histoire
de I'estat present de I'Eglise grccque", 361; Hilaire
de Barenton, "La France Catholique en Orient",
171-173).
Syra took no part in the Greek revolt of 1821; but here the refugees flocked and founded the town of Hermupolis, which rapidly became the leading port of Greece. Since 1870 the ports of Pira>us and Patras have greatly injured it from a commercial standpoint. The diocese numbers 8000 Catholics, 21 secular priests and 8 regulars, 7 parishes, 7 churches with a resident priest, 3 without a priest, and 56 chapels. The Capuchins and Jesuits have each an establishment; the Sisters of Charity, 2 houses, one of which is a hospital; the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition have a boarding-school.
Smith. Did. of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; Lacroix, Res de la Grece (Paris, 1853). 447-50; Mandat-Grancet. Aui pays d'Homire (Paris, 1904). 78-92; Mission4!ii catholica (Rome, 1907), 150; Ampelas, Hist, of Syros (Hermupolia, 1874), in Greek.
S. Vailh^.
Syracuse, Archdiocese of (STR.\cnsANA), in Sicily. The city is situated upon a peninsula extend- ing into the Ionian Sea, near the mouth of the River Anapus, on the banks of which the papyrus plant Ls still cultivated. The territory produces all varie- ties of grains, vegetables, and fruits. Of the two harbours of the city, the principal one is the largest in Sicily and one of the largest of the Mediterranean; two islets, San Marciano and Castelluccio, render it secure without obstructing the entrance. At present the exports exceed the imports. The cathedral is built on the ruins of an ancient temple of Minerva, which waa a hexa.stylo-periptero3 with thirty-six columns of which only twenty-two remain. In front of the cathedral are .statues of St. Peter and St. Paul by Marabitti; in the inferior are several pictures (^Iadonna of the Pillar; Birth of the Virgin) by Agos- tino Scilla, who also painted the frescoes of the vault
of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the silver
statue of St. Lucy. The baptismal font is fashioned
from a large Greek crater, resting upon seven small
lions of bronze, found in the catacombs of San Gio-
vanni. Among the furniture is a storiated amber
ehahce. Other churches are: Santa Lucia, with a
"Martyrdom" of the .saint by Guinaccia; San Bene-
detto, containing a picture of the saint by Minniti;
San Martino; San Si)irito; San Domenico; II Gesil
(the church of the Jesuits), with paintings of the
Venetian School and a statue of St. Ignatius by Mara-
bitti; the Church of Santa Lucia dei Riformati with-
out the city, possessing a painting by Caravaggio.
Among the civic buildings are the fort of Giorgios
Maniakes and Palazzo Montaldo, in the Gothic and
Moorish styles. The museum is rich in both Greek
and Latin inscriptions (among which are many Chris-
tian inscriptions from the catacombs) and fragments
L, Stracuse, Sicily
of statues, including a Venus leaving the bath. The
public library has an important collection of medals.
Ancient ruins at Syracuse are much less numerous
than one would e.xpect. There are still to be seen:
the amphitheatre (epoch of Augustus); the Greek
theatre, excavated from the rock; sepulchres also ex-
cavated in the rock; the colossal altar of Hiero II,
seven hundred and sixty feet long, upon which, after
the ex-pulsion of Thrasybulus, four hundred and fifty
oxen were sacrificed; the "Latomic", i. e. caves in the
rock where condemned prisoners of war and others
were incarcerated, of which the most famous is the
"Ear of Dionysius". The fountain of Arethu.sa,
which issues forth in the ward of Ortygia (the present
Syracuse), in antiquity was sweet but since an earth-
quake of the twelfth century has become salt. The
Catacombs of San Giovanni, of Santa Maria del
Gesd, and the catacombs Cassai, similar to those at
Rome, are well known ; besides these there have been
discovered in the environs of Syracuse various tombs
(lycntini, Valle del Molinello, Priolo, San Alfano,
Palazzolo, etc.) which have rather the character of
ancient tombs of the Sicelioti (aboriginal inhabitants).
The present Syracu.se occupies only a part of the an-
cient city. The latter was composccl of five great
quarters: (1) Ortygia, originally an island but after-
