PREPOSITI. - They were the officials in charge of administration in the cemetery basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Lawrence and St. Pancras, and of their lighting, as the Christian inscriptions found there demonstrate (G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. chr., I, Rome 1857-81, nos. 975, 989, 1004 ff., 1085).

They were members of the clergy, but always of a rank lower than the titular presbyters, as the epitaph of the years 521-25 of the spouses Augustus and Gaudiosa in St. Pancras teaches; there the p. is named after the four presbyters of the title of St. Chrysogonus, which had jurisdiction over the basilica and the cemetery of St. Pancras (A. Silvagni, Inscriptiones christ., nova series, II, Rome 1935, no. 4279). An inscription in Geneva commemorates a prepositus and presbiter (E. Le Blant, Inscr. christ. de la Gaule, II, Paris 1861, p. 2). In present-day terminology p. denotes a capitular dignity or the superior general of a religious Order.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, III, Rome 1877, pp. 520-24; H. Leclercq, Préposé, in DACL, XVI, pp. 1716-1717.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec9_prepositi, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Prepositi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1953}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/prepositi} }

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