SARAT
284
BARBARA
ready to support and guide this first missioner
of the Society. She called all the superiors to-
gether in council at Paris in 1820, to provide a
uniform course of studies for their schools. These
studies were to be solid and serious, to fit the pupils
to become intelligent wives and devoted mothers; to
give that cultivation of mind, that formation of
character, which go to make up a true woman; all
was to be stamped and sealed with strong religious
principles and devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Foundations multiplied, and Mother Barat, seeing the necessity of a stronger guarantee of unity, sought it in union with Rome. The solemn approbation was obtained much sooner than usual, owing to a memoir drawn up by the foundress and presented to Leo XII in May, 1826. The decree of approbation was promulgated in December. The society being now fully organized and sealed by Rome's approval, for forty years Mother Barat journeyed from convent to convent, wrote many thousand letters, and assem- bled general congregations, so as to preserve its origi- nal spirit. The Paris school gained European repute; Rome counted three establishments, asked for and blessed by three successive pontiffs. At Lyons Mother Barat founded the Congregation of the Children of Mary for former pupils and other ladies. In the same year (1832), she began at Turin the work of retreats for ladies of the world, an apostleship since widely and profitably imitated. Numerous foundations brought Mother Barat into personal con- tact with all classes. We find her crossing and re- crossing France, Switzerland, Italy, often on the eve of revolutions; now the centre of a society of cmigr('s whose intellectual gifts, high social position, and moral worth are seldom found united; now sought out by cardinals and Roman princesses during her visits to her Roman houses; at another time, speaking on matters educational with Madame de Genlis; or again, exercising that supernatural ascendency which aroused the admiration of such men as Bishop Frays- sinous. Doctor R&>amier, and Due de Rohan.
These exterior labours were far from absorbing all Mother Barat's time or energies; they coexisted with a life of ever-increasing holiness and continual prayer; for the real secret of her influence lay in her habitual seclusion from the outside world, in the strong re- ligious formation of her daugliters which this seclu- sion made possible, and in the enlightened, profound, and supernatural views on education which she com- municated to the religious engaged in her schools. She worked by and tlu-ough them all, and thus reached out to the ends of the earth. In spite of her- self she attracted and charmed all who approached her. New foundations she always entrusted to other hands; for, like all great rulers, she had the twofold gift of intuition in the choice of persons fitted for office, and trust of those in responsible posts, allowing them much freedom of action in details, guiding them only by her counsels and usually from afar. Prelates who now and then ventured to attribute to her tlie successes of the Society, saw that instead of pleasing, they distressed her exceedingly.
Beloved by her daughters, venerated by princes and pontiffs, yet ever lowly of heart. Mother Barat died at the mother-house in Paris, on Ascension Day, 1865, as she had foretold, after four days' illness. She was buried at Conflans, the house of novitiate, where her body was found intact in 1893. In 1879 she was declared Venerable, and the process of beatification introduced.
Life of Venerable Madeleine Louise Sophie Barat (Roe- hampton, 19001; Baunard. Histoire de la Venerable Mere Barat (Paris, 1876. 1900). tr. Fullerton (Roehampton, 1876; abr., 1893); Une Religieuse du Sacr^Cceur, Viede la Vene- rable Mhe Barat. Une Religieuse du Sacre Caur (Paris. 1884, 1900).
Alice Power.
Bourges during the first quarter of the seventeenth
century; d. in 1706 at Paris. He began his studies
at Sens, and continued them in Paris, where he was
instructor in the Mazarin College. There he came
under the influence of Richard Simon, the famous
OrientaUst and Biblical scholar. The greater part
of his published work was done in collaboration with
other scholars. With Pere Bordes he edited the
posthumous work of Thomassin, "Glossarium uni-
versale hebraicum" (Paris, 1697), and aided J. B.
Duh.amel in the pubHcation of his Bible (Paris, 1706).
At the time of his death he was engaged on a French
translation of Schabtai's "Rabbinical Library".
His critical opinions, and much curious literary in-
formation that he had acquired, were pubUshed
posthumously under the title, "Nouvelle biblio-
theque choisie" (Amsterdam, 1714, 2 vols.).
Tallemant, Eloge de M. Barat in Memoires de Vacademie des inscrip. et belles lettrea, I, 345; BozE, Histoire deVacad. des inscrip., 1, 41.
Eneas B. Goodwin.
Barba, Alv.\ho Alonzo, a secular priest of whom Nicolas .\ntonio (Bibhottieca hispana nova, 1786) says: •■ Baeticus ox oppido Lepe, apud Potosi "; hence of Andalusian origin. By Lepe and Potosi, Lipes in western Bolivia might be indicated. He lived at Potosi during the period when its silver- mines were most productive and luxury and revelry among the Spanish residents and mine-owners had nearly reached the climax. Father Barba, in the midst of a turmoil of sensuality, divided his time between his sacerdotal duties and a close study of the ores of this region and their treatment. There had been, since 1570, a complete revolution in the treat- ment of silver-ores, through the application of quick- silver, and a number of improvements followed, of which Barba had knowledge. In 1640 he published, at Madrid, a book entitled "Arte de los Metales", which, though properly metallurgic and out of date, is still of value as the earliest work on South American ores and minerals. Many of its indications are well worthy the attention of miners and prospectors. This is especially the case in regard to mineral locali- ties in Bolivia. The book was republished in Spanish in 1729, in 1770 and, recently, in Chile. There is a French translation from 1751 and one also in English.
PiNELo. Epitome, etc., (1738), II; Nicolas Antonio, Bib- tiotheca hispana nova (Madrid, 1786); Mendibhru, Dice. Hist.-biog., etc., (Lima, 1876), II; Relaciones geogrdficas de Indias (Madrid. 1885), II, Appendix iv.
Ad. F. Bandelier.
Barbadoes. See Gjiana.
Barbalissos, a titular see of Mesopotamia. It was a city in Provincia Augusta Euphratensis, where the Equites Dalmatae Illyriciani kept garrison (Notit. Dig- nitat. Orientis, ed. Boecking, 88, 389). Justinian raised anew its walls (Procop.. De a?dific., II, 19; Mala- las. Chronograph., XVIII, in Migne. P. G., XCVII, 676). At an early date it was a suffragan of Hiera- polis, a metropolis in the Patriarchate of Antioch. Its bishop .\ntonius was present at the Council of Nica^a (325); two other bishops, Aquilinus and Marinianus, are known between 431 and 451 (Lequien, II, 949). The see is still mentioned in the sixth century. From 793 to 1042 five Jacobite bishops are known bearing this title (Revue de I'Orient chr^tien, VI, 192). Its site is marked by the ruins at Qala' at Balis, which partly retains the old name, south of Meskene, on the road from Aleppo to Sovira, \\here the Euphrates turns suddenly to the east. The spellings Barbaris- sos and Barbairissos in later "Notitiff" are wrong; so is Barbaricus campus in Procopius (De bello Per- sico, II, 99). Lequien (I, 407) TVTongly gives Bar- balissus as sjaionynious with Balbisse, another bishop- ric in Cappadocia, known only in 1143.
S. VAILHt.
Barat. Nicolas, a French Orientalist, b. at Barbara, Saint, Virgin and Martyr. — ^There is no
