GUILMANT, Félix-Alexandre. – Organist and composer, b. at Boulogne-sur-Mer on 12 March 1837, d. at Meudon (Paris) on 29 March 1911. With his father, who was organist at S. Niccolò, he studied the first elements of music, which he later completed at the school of Gustavo Carulli. In Brussels he perfected his organ studies under Lemmens.
At the age of twenty he became maestro di cappella at S. Niccolò and later organ teacher at the Conservatory. In 1871 he became organist at the church of the Trinity in Paris, where he won great acclaim. He traveled in Italy, Spain, England, and Russia, achieving notable success. A powerful and original performer, he was also a composer, revealing profound and effective contrapuntal and harmonic gifts. In 1894 he was a co-founder of the Schola cantorum, where he served as organ teacher. In 1896 he moved to the Conservatory. Guilmant was also a great collector of organ music. The *Archives des maîtres de l'orgue* (with biographical studies by André Pirro) is a collection of French masters of previous centuries, while the *École classique d'Orgue* (25 fascicles) ranges over a broader field. His original works include numerous organ pieces, masses, psalms, hymns, and an oratorio.
Guilmant’s aim was to revitalize French music and, together with Franck, d’Indy, Bordes, and others, to create a French school of organ playing.
GUINEA. – Portuguese Guinea comprises a small continental strip entirely enclosed within the territory of French Guinea, together with the adjacent Bissagos Archipelago: in all 36,125 sq. km. with 430,000 inhabitants (mostly Negroes and mulattoes; 1,400 Europeans). It produces peanuts, cotton, rubber, timber, and palm oil. The capital of the colony is S. José de Bissau (6,000 inhabitants).
Spanish Guinea consists of a continental district enclosed within the territory of French Equatorial Africa and the islands of Fernando Po, Annobon, Corisco, and the two Elobey in the Gulf of Guinea: in all 26,649 sq. km. with 175,000 inhabitants (Negro Bantus, 2,500 whites). It produces cocoa (Fernando Po), bananas, coffee, coconut palms, and timber (Río Muni). The capital is S. Isabel, on the island of Fernando Po (800 inhabitants).
For maps of the ecclesiastical districts of Spanish Guinea, V. AFRICA, cols. 379–380; for those of French and Portuguese Guinea, V. ibid., cols. 381–382.
EVANGELIZATION OF GUINEA. – In the 15th century the Portuguese began to establish their dominion over Guinea, which in broader terms included the western coasts of Africa from Cape Verde to Cape Frio. It was divided by the Niger River into northern and southern Guinea. The Franciscans soon followed the colonizers.
In 1462 Father Alfonso Bolano was appointed prefect of the mission in Guinea. History records the baptism of two kings in 1489 and 1491. From 1532 Guinea was dependent on the diocese of Santiago de Cape Verde. The missions were confined to the Portuguese posts on the coast, especially at Bissau, Cacheu, and Elmina. Other attempts at evangelization of the peoples of Guinea were made in the 17th century. The Jesuits were established from 1604 to 1642 in Sierra Leone; they were succeeded by the Spanish Capuchins from 1644 to 1688. The French Capuchins made a brief attempt (from 1635 to 1644) at evangelization at Ruasque and on the Gold Coast, where the French had established a trading post. There were also the missions of the Spanish Capuchins in the Kingdom of Ardra (Dahomey) from 1659 to 1661 and in the Kingdoms of Benin and Owerri from 1651 to 1695. Still at the end of the 17th century the Dominicans were found in the Kingdom of Isigini and the Augustinians in the Kingdom of Ouidad. But all these efforts did not lead to a stable mission.
In the 18th century only a few Portuguese stations remained, visited by missionaries from the Cape Verde Islands, and the new apostolic prefecture of Senegal, erected in 1763 for the small French colonies of St. Louis of Senegal and Gorée. The present missions in Guinea arose from successive divisions of the apostolic vicariate of the Two Guineas, created by Gregory XVI in 1842.
Following a resolution of the American bishops at the Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1833, which had turned its attention to Catholic Negroes in the colony of Liberia, the vicar general of the diocese of Philadelphia, Eduardo Barron (1801–54), accompanied by Father John Kelly and the catechist Pindar, set out in 1841 for Africa and arrived in February 1842 at Cape Palmas. After going to Europe to seek personnel, Barron was appointed apostolic vicar of the new vicariate of Upper and Lower Guinea and Sierra Leone, erected on 8 October 1842, commonly called the vicariate of the Two Guineas. Accompanied by seven fathers of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary under Father Libermann, he returned on 30 November 1843 to Africa; but after the death of these missionaries, Barron resigned (1845). In 1846 the vicariate was entrusted to the aforementioned Congregation of Father Libermann. The apostolic vicariate of the Two Guineas included all of West Africa between the prefecture of Senegal and the Orange River, without precise limits inland, except for the rights of the bishop of Loanda. Successive divisions restricted the vicariate to the territory of Gabon, and this name was later given to the apostolic vicariate of the Two Guineas.
From the vicariate of the Two Guineas were detached: 1. Fernando Po; 2. Sierra Leone, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1858 and as a diocese in 1950 (v. FREETOWN and BO); 3. Dahomey; 4. Senegambia, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1863 (v. DAKAR); 5. the Gold Coast, erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1879; 6. Cimbebasia (v. WINDHOEK); 7. Upper Nigeria (v. JOS); 8. French Congo (v. BRAZZAVILLE); 9. Lower Nigeria, erected as an apostolic prefecture in 1889 and elevated to a vicariate under the name of Southern Nigeria in 1920; in 1934, with the detachment of the two apostolic prefectures of Benue and Calabar, it took the name of Onitsha-Owerri; from the prefecture of Calabar, a vicariate apostolic since 1947, the prefecture of Ogossi was detached in 1938; 10. Cameroon (v. FOUMBAN); 11. From 1890 the former apostolic vicariate of the Two Guineas was restricted to the territory of Gabon and also took this name, which was changed in 1947 Libreville (v.). V. KANKAN, apostolic prefecture of, and KONAKRY, apostolic vicariate of.