RÉUNION (SAINT-DENIS), DIOCESE of - The diocese of R.
lished his Tavole cronologiche e sincroni della storia fiorentina (Florence 1841; supplementary volume, ibid. 1875), of considerable usefulness to scholars. He left Florence following his appointment as legation counsellor 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 the opportunity to explore the Neapolitan archives, from which he drew a study on Spanish rule in Naples in the seventeenth century. Appointed Prussian minister to the courts of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, he began a new period of residence in Florence in 1851, which continued uninterrupted until 1860. The diplomatic reports he sent to his government during those years testify to his profound aversion to Cavour’s policy, as he was a supporter of an Italian federation headed by the Pontiff. Having withdrawn from diplomacy after the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy, he resumed publishing historical studies of various kinds and collecting those of earlier years in systematic volumes: 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 (up to the time 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 Zeit- und Lebensbild (Gotha 1880); Vittoria Colonna. Leben, Dichten, Glauben im 16. Jahrh. (Freiburg in Br. 1881; Italian trans. Turin 1883), etc.
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 November 1672 served as parish priest at St-Paul. After him, secular and religious priests cared for the inhabitants.
Following private agreements between the Lazarists and the French East India Company, Propaganda on 5 December 1712 granted special faculties to the apostolic nuncio in Paris, with authority to subdelegate them to an apostolic prefect (Fr. Renou) and Lazarist missionaries. These faculties were confirmed to him on 20 January 1718 and granted directly on 26 February 1720, and subsequently to his successor (Fr. Crais) on 28 September 1720. In 1720, for ten years, and then definitively in 1735, supervision over that apostolic prefecture and also over the Isle of France was given to the archbishop of Paris, with authority to subdelegate it 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. No appointments were made from 1810 to 1818. In 1818 R. was entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, whose superior appointed the prefects and vice-prefects and received the relevant decrees and letters patent from Propaganda. On 17 January 1829 the apostolic prefecture was extended to the island of St. Mary of Madagascar, and on 12 September 1829 to the entire island of Madagascar (Tananarive [v.] ). On 27 September 1850 the prefecture was raised to a diocese, still entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.
Its area is 2,400 sq. km., with a population of approximately 259,600 inhabitants. There are 237,500 Catholics, 300 Protestants, 6,000 Muslims, 7,000 Brahmins, and 8,700 Buddhists. There are 41 secular priests, 38 religious, 33 brothers, and 352 sisters. There are various charitable and educational institutions.