DORSAL
136
DOSITHEANS
2 May, 1.393, with the permission of the chapter and of
the Teutonic Order, established a hermitage near the
catheiiral. She led a very austere life. Numerous
\Tsitors sought her advice and consolation, and she
had wonderful \'isions and revelations. Her con-
fessor, the deacon John of Marienwerder, a learned
theologian, wrot« down her communications and com-
posed a Latin biography in seven books, "Septili-
liimi", besides a German life in four books. She was
never canonized, but the people honoured her as the
guardian of the country of the Teutonic Knights and
"patroness of Prussia". Her feast is celebrated on
25 June, in some places on 30 Oct. The church at Marienwerder is now in the hands of the Lutherans; her relics cannot be found.
Hitler, Mei^tcr Joh. Marienwerder u. d. Klausnerin Doro- thea V. Montau (Braunsberg, 1S65): Idem, Sepliiilium B. Doro- Ihete Montovimsts, Auctore joh, Marienwerder (Brussels, 1SS5): Ada SS., 30 Oct.; Kaule.v in Kirchenlex., Ill, 1991-i.
Gabriel Meier.
Dorsal, .\ltar. See Altar (in Liturgy), sub-title Altar-curtain.
Dorsey, Anne Hanson, novelist, b. at Georgetown, District of Columbia, U.S.A., 1815; d. at Washington,
26 December, 1896. She was the daughter of the Rev. William McKcmiey. a chaplain in the United States
Na\'\-. and C'hloe Ann Lanigan McKenney. In 1837 she was mar- ried to Lorenzo Dor- sey, and in 1840 became a convert to the Catholic Faith. From this period, for more tlian half a century, she devoted her ex- ceptional talent to Catholic fiction. She was a pioneer of light I 'atholic literature in the United States and a leading writer for the young. While deeply religious in tone, her stories are full of living interest and a knowledge of the world gained by clear insight and wide experi- ence. Mrs. Dorsey's only son was killed while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. She left three daughters. Pope Leo XIII twice sent her his benedic- tion, and the University of Notre Dame conferred upon her the Lsetare medal. Her chief works are: "The Student of Blenheim Forest"; "Flowers of Love and Memory"; "Guy, the Leper"; "Tears of the Dia- dem"; "Tale of the ^\'hite and Red Roses"; "Wood- reve Manor"; "Conscience, or the Trials of May Brooke"; "Oriental Pearl"; "Cocaina, the Rose of the Algonquins"; "The Flemings"; "Nora Brady's Vow"; "Mona, the Vestal"; "The Old Gray Rosary"; "Tan- gled Paths " ; " The Old House at Glenarra " ; " Adrift" ; "Ada's Trust"; "Beth's Promise"; "The Heiress of Carrigmona"; "Warp and Woof"; "The Palms".
Curl, of Am. tiiog.. II. 206; A Round Table of American Catho- lic Novelists (New York, 1S96).
Mart T. Waggaman.
Dort, Synod of. See ARinNiANisM.
Dorylaeum, a titular see of Phrygia Salutaris, in Asi;i .Minor. This city already existed under the kings of I'hrj-gia and is mentioned by most of the ancient geographers. It was situated at Karadja Hissar, six miles south-west of the modern Eski Shehir. About the end of the fourth centuiy B. c. it was removed to Shehir Euyuk, at the ruins north of the same Eski Shehir: there it remained during the Byzantine period. Seven bishops are known from the fourth to the ninth century, the most famous
being Eusebius, who denounced successively the
heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches (Lequien, Oriens
Christ., I, 837). The see is mentioned as late as the
twelfth century among the suffragans of Synnada, but
must have been suppressed soon after. Don,-la>um
was taken and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks, proba-
bly in 1070. It was there (1 J\ily, 1097) that the
crusaders won their great victory over the Turks.
The city was rebuilt in 1175 by Manuel Comnenus
and fortified as well as possible. At this time John
Cinnaraus ("Hist or.", VII, 2-3) and Nicetas Chonia-
tes ("De gestis Man. Comn.", VI, 1) write enthusiasti-
cally about it as one of the most beautiful cities of
Asia Minor. The ne.xt year it fell again into the hands
of the Turks; in 1240 it passed to Erthogroul, father
of Othman, the founder of the Osmanli dynastj- ihis
tomb is at Seughud near Eski Shehir). Meanwhile
the city stretched away from the hill of Shehir Euyuk
and developed along the Poursak (ancient Tembris
or Thymbris), under the name of Eski Shehir. The
modern town is situated at an altitude of 7.S3 metres,
on a va.st and fertile plateau, about 400 kilometres
from Constantinople. Eski Shehir is the chief town
of a caza in the vilavet of Brusa. The population is
about 40,000: 2000 Greeks, 2000 Armenians, 200
Latins, a few Catholic Armenians, Protestants, and
Jews, the rest being Mussulmans. Since 1891 the
Assumptionists have conducted a mission with a
school for boys, and the Oblate Sisters of the Assump-
tion two schools for girls. There is also a Catholic
Armenian parish. Eski Shehir has hot springs that
are used for baths. Fish, especially gigantic silures,
swarm in the Poursak. The meerschaum industry
flourishes there: the chief known mine of this mineral
is at Mikhalitch in the district of Eski Shehir.
.\lxswoRTH. Travels and Researches in Asia Minor. II, 56-58; Texier. Asie Mineiire (Paris, 1S62), 40S-411; Kamsav. Asia Minor (London. ISQO, 212; Cuinet. La Turquie d'Asie, IV, 208-213; Preger, Dorylaion in Miflheilungen archaeol. Insti- tuts (Athens, 1894). XIX. 301-305; Radet. En Phrygie (Paris, 1895); Echos d'Orient (1897), 82-85; (1906), 356-360; (1907), 77-82.
S. Vailhe.
Dositheans, followers of Dositheus, a Samaritan who formed a Gnostic-Judaistic sect, previous to Simon Magus. Although the name of Dositheus is often coupled with that of Simon Magus as the first of all heretics, we possess but scant information concerning him. He is not mentioned in Justin or Irenajus, but first occurs in Pseudo-Tertullian's "Adv. H»r.", a Latin rendering of the lost "Syntagma" of Hippoly- tus (about A.D. 220). "I pass over in silence", says the author, "the heretics of Judaism, I mean Dosi- theus the Samaritan, who first dared to reject the Prophets, as not having spoken in the Holy Ghost. I pass over the Sadducees, who, springing from this root of error, dared in addition to this heresy to tleny even the resurrection of the flesh "' (ch. i). If, however, the Sadducees sprang from Dositheus, he must have begun to teach sometime previous to the Christian Era, and cannot properly be counted amongst heretics of Chris- tianity. St. Jerome, who copied Pseudo-Tertullian, distinctly speaks of "those who before the coming of Christ uiidid the Law". An independent witness to the same fact is found in the Pseudo-Clementine " Rec- ognitions", I, 54: "the author of this [Sadducee] opinion was first Dositheus and then Simon". On the other hand in " Recognitions", II, S, we read that Dositheus founded a sect after the death of John the Baptist. Origen states that " Dositheus the Samari- tan, after the time of Jesus, wished to persuade the Samaritans that he himself was the Messias prophe- sied by Mo.ses" (Contra Celsum, VI, ii) ; and he cla.sses him with John the Baptist, Theodas. and Juilas of Galilee as people whom the Jews mistakenly held to be the Christ i Horn, xxv in Lucam; Contra Celsum, I, Ivii). He informs us that the Dositheans gave out
