SAN VINCENZO, DIOCESE OF
Suffragan of Salvador, in the homonymous state (Central America). It was erected on 18 December 1943.
It has an area of 5,460 sq. km. and a population of 340,000 inhabitants, of whom 321,000 are Catholics, with 18 parishes served by 15 diocesan priests and 7 regular priests. There are 2 male and 4 female religious communities. The present bishop is Msgr. Pietro Arnoldo Aparicio, Salesian, elected and consecrated in 1946 and transferred there in 1948.
SANŪSIYYAH
The most recent of the great *fariqah* or mystical Muslim confraternities; it is of all the least mystical, in the strictest sense of the word, and the most influential in political affairs, so much so that, at present (1951), its leader has become king of the new independent State of Libya. It was founded by Sidi Muhammad b. 'Ali as-Sanūsī, born in 1787 near Mustaghanem (Algeria), in 1837 at Mecca.
In 1840 the *fariqah* had already established itself in Egypt, and when, shortly afterwards, many Libyan tribes adhered to its preaching, as-Sanūsī found himself at the head of a strong politico-religious movement with a military character. When he died in 1859 at Giarabub, he was succeeded by his eldest son.