RÉUNION (SAINT-DENIS), DIOCESE of - The diocese of R. published his Tavole cronologiche e sincrone della storia fiorentina (Florence 1841; supplementary volume, ibid. 1875), very useful to scholars. He left Florence following his appointment as counsellor of legation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and returned to Italy in 1849 as chargé d'affaires to Pius IX, then at Gaeta. He thus had occasion to explore the Neapolitan archives and from them produced a study on Spanish rule in Naples in the 17th century. Appointed minister of Prussia to the courts of Tuscany, Modena and Parma, he began in 1851 a new period of residence in Florence that lasted uninterruptedly until 1860. The diplomatic reports sent in those years by him to his government testify to his profound aversion to Cavour's policy, committed as he was to an Italian federation headed by the Pontiff. Having withdrawn from diplomacy after the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, he resumed publishing historical studies of various kinds and collecting into coherent volumes those of the earlier years: Römische Briefe von einem Florentiner (4 vols., Leipzig 1840-44); Manganelli, Papst Clemens XIV, Seine Briefe und seine Zeit (2 vols., Berlin 1847); Die Carofis von Maddaloni (2 vols., ibid. 1851); Beiträge zur italien. Geschichte (6 vols., ibid. 1853-1857); Geschichte der Stadt Rom (down to the times of Pius IX, 4 vols., ibid. 1867-70); Geschichte Toskanas seit dem Ende des florentinischen Freistaates (2 vols., Gotha 1867-77); Lorenzo de' Medici, il Magnifico (2 vols., Berlin 1874; 2nd ed. 1883); Gino Capponi. Ein Zeitund Lebensbild (Gotha 1880); Vittoria Colonna. Leben, Dichten, Glauben im 16. Jahrh. (Freiburg im Br. 1881; Italian trans. Turin 1883), etc.
Bibliography4 works
Silvio Furlani
RÉUNION (SAINT-DENIS), DIOCESE of - It comprises the entire island of R. The priest Giovanni Jourdie, a Lazarist, arrived there in 1665 and until 20 Nov. 1672 was curate at St-Paul. After him, secular priests and religious took care of the inhabitants.
Following private agreements between the Lazarists and the French East India Company, on 5 Dec. 1712 Propaganda gave special faculties to the apostolic nuncio in Paris, subdelegable to an apostolic prefect (Fr. Renou) and Lazarist missionaries. These faculties were confirmed to him on 20 Jan. 1718 and granted directly on 26 Feb. 1720, and then to his successor (Fr. Crais) on 28 Sept. 1720. In 1720 for 10 years, and then definitively in 1735, the superintendence over that apostolic prefecture and also over the Island of France was then given to the archbishop of Paris with faculties subdelegable to the apostolic prefects of the two missions as his vicars and to the missionaries. From 1787 to 1807 these were administered by a single apostolic prefect. From 1810 to 1818 no appointments took place. In 1818 R. was entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, whose superior designated the prefects and vice-prefects, and received from Propaganda the relevant decrees and letters patent. On 17 Jan. 1829 the apostolic prefecture was extended to the island of St. Mary of Madagascar and on 12 Sept. 1829 to the whole island of Madagascar (Tananarive [v.]). On 27 Sept. 1850 the prefecture was elevated to a diocese, still entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.
The area is 2,400 sq km with a population of about 259,600 inhabitants. Catholics number 237,500, Protestants 300, Muslims 6,000, Brahmins 7,000, Buddhists 8,700. Secular priests 41, religious 38, brothers 33, sisters 352. The charitable and teaching works are various.
Bibliography4 works
Saverio Paventi