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benefactors. At his own expense he sent Dr. J. B.
O'Gaban to Madrid to study in the Pestalozzian In-
stitute the new pedagogical methods in order to
introduce them into Cuba. The college of San Jos^,
commonly called San Ignacio, which had been under
the direction of the Jesuits, and after their expulsion
(1767) was known as the seminary of S. Carlos, was
the favourite object of his efforts in the sense of higher,
or university, teaching. It is true that his tendencies
diverged somewhat from the prescription of the Coun-
cil of Trent, but his work on the whole evidenced a
burning zeal for the higher culture of his country. To
this marked determination of his must be attributed
the lofty conception which issued in the chairs of
physics and chemistry established in the college
and the laboratories attached to them. Not less
famous, indceil, were the chairs of law and phil-
osophy, the latter of which the priest Felix Varela
Oluminatetl with a lorilliancy surjxissed by none. Of
all native Cubans Varela must be accounted the most
worthy of the name of philosopher. His was a wide
and comprehensive intelligence, influenced unduly by
the school of Condillac, but not shut up within its
narrow limits, the result being a thoroughly eclectic
mind with decidedly positive preferences, which
rendered him antagonistic to Scholasticism and put
him out of harmony with metaphysics. The proof
of this is his " Institutiones Philosophire Eclecticae ad
usum studiosoe juventutis" (1812), as well as the
"Miscellany" (Miscelanea, Eticay Elencos anuales).
His life is linked with the history of the Diocese of New
York, where for some years he devoted himself to
missionary work, founded churches, and edited publi-
cations ["The Protestant Abridger and Annotator"
(1830). and "The Catholic Expositor and Literary
Magazine" (1841-41?)], to say nothing of the defence
of Catholicism which he called " Letters to Elpidius".
He became (1837) \'icar-Cleneral of New York. Es-
pada was his inspiration and his mentor. As a pro-
moter of public sanitation, Havana owes to Espada
the old cemetery which bears his name, and the drain-
age of the marsh lands which have since been con-
verted into the beautiful Campo de Marte. Famous,
too, is his pastoral on vaccination, in which he annihi-
lates prejudices and recommends the clergy to become
propagators of Jenner's beneficent discovery. Es-
pada y Landa was born at Arroyave, Alava, in 1756;
his death 13 .\ugust, 1832, was an event pregnant
with sorrow for tlie whole island of Cuba.
Don Pedro Valera y Jimenez (d. 1833), Archbishop of Santo Domingo, and Fray Ramon Casaus y Torres, a Franciscan (d. 1845), governed the Diocese of Havana as administrators Apostolic. The latter had been successively Bishop of Oajaca in Mexico, and of Guatemala. The arrival in Cuba of Don Francisco Fleix y Solans (1846-04) marked the beginning of a period fertile in enterprises for the renewal of spiritual life in a people dominated by indifference and the feverish ambition of lucre. The seminary, decadent and estranged from the Tridentine spirit, was soon placed under a system more adequate to that forma- tion of sacerdotal character which is the aim of its existence. Fleix y Solans built and restored eighty- six churches and chapels which had been ruined or damaged by the hurricane of 1846. He introduced the organ and plain chant in the more important country churches. But the achievement which re- flects most credit upon his episcopacy is the resto- ration of the religious orders. With this end he obtained from Queen Isabella II (1852) a partial restitution of the property of the regulars, and with this, concurrently with the re-establishment to some extent of the older ones which had been suppressed by legal enactments, he introduced new institutes adapted to the new exigencies. Thus arose the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Escolapios. The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul took possession of the
college of St. Francis de Sales and, subsequently, of
other colleges, asylums, charitable institutions, and
hospitals. The Religious of the Sacred Heart also
opened their academy, and the Lazarist Fathers ar-
rived to take up the work of missions and the educa-
tion of the clergy.
Two of the most influential educational institutions in the country have been the Royal College of Bel6n, under the direction of the Jesuits, and the Pious Schools of Guanabacoa under the Sons of St. Joseph Calasanctius (Piarists). To the former of these be- longs, moreover, the glory of its observatory which began its existence in 1857 under the direction of the Rev. A. Cabr6, S.J. This institution having already obtained a position of prominence in 1863, under Father Cianipi, then recei\ed its first magnetic instru- ments. Its career as a scientific institution continued somewhat languidly and with difficulty until, in 1870, the religious with whose name as that of an organizer the glory of Bel^n will ever be inseparalily linked took charge of the observatory — Father Benito Vines, S.J.. a man of a patient and investigative turn of mind, whose observation not the minutest details escaped, while he formulated principles and deduced general laws. For twenty-three years (1870-93) he persevered in his charge, and not only augmented the apparatus of observation, acquiring exact modern instruments (1882), but, moreover, gained honourable distinction and premiimis at the Exhibitions of Phila- delphia (1876), Paris (1878), Barcelona (18SS), etc. His predictions were regarded in Cuba as oracles, and ship-captains looked upon him as their official advLser. In 1877 he published his work on West Indian hurri- canes (.iVpuntes Relativos ;l los Huracanes de las ."Vn- tillas), which, complemented by his posthumous " Investigaciones", constitutes the most complete and original work on the subject in existence. He was succeeded by Father Gangoiti, S.J., who had been his assistant. The observatory eventually established a seismographic station and still maintains its scientific prestige and its practical utility. Another work too important and interesting to be passed without men- tion was the foundation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (1858), which owed to Fleix y Solans both the encouragement of his approving words and the sub- stantial means of support for thirty destitute persons. Fleix y Solans died Archbishop of Tarragona. Fray Jacinto Martinez, consecrated in the chapel royal of Madrid in 1S65, arrived at Havana in the same year. A Capuchin who had been a missionary in \'enezuela and Mexico, President of the Oratory of St. Philip at Havana in 1847, parish priest of Matanzas in 1853, and secretary of the legation sent by Pius IX to the Far East, as bishop he ruled his diocese with inflexible firmness and with elevation of purpose in the midst of political turmoil and confusion. Martinez, who died at Rome in 1873, was the author of, among other works, " Pius IX and the Italy of One Day" (Pio IX y la Italia de un dia), "Catholic Vigils" (Veladas Cat6- licas), a treatise on the glories of the Blessed Virgin, and an historical essay on the Middle Ages (Edad Media comparada con los tiempos modernos). His successor in the see. Dr. Apolinaris Serrano y Diaz (September, 1875, to June, 1876), joined to the ardent zeal of an apostle the sweetness of the holy Bishop of Geneva.
Of architectural monuments, the chief among the sacred edifices of Cuba is the Church of the Merced (1867), the work of Father Jeronimo Viladds, CM. (d. 1883). With the rococo style much in evidence in its older portion (1792), its ^rave and simple linet nevertheless resemble the Doric more than any other order, and its combination of the massive with the ornate produce a profoundly religious impression. The Cathedral of Havana is the old church of St. Ignatius converted into a parish church by Morel! de Santa Cruz, enlarged by Don S. J. Echevarria, transformed
