SARDEGNA

SARDINIA. — In terms of area (24,089 sq. km), including the adjacent islands, it is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean and the third-largest administrative division in Italy.

I. GEOGRAPHY

Its position in the Mediterranean, the considerable length of its coastline, and the presence of good natural harbors might have made it a predominantly maritime region, had its millennia-long history not repeatedly exposed it to easy access by invaders and pirates, thereby driving the inhabitants inland and further isolating them from contact with other Mediterranean peoples.

The island is predominantly mountainous, though its relief is highly fragmented; isolated massifs (Gennargentu, Gallura) alternate with plateaus (Logudoro, Nuorese), hills (Sarcidano, Ogliastra), river valleys (Tirso, Flumendosa, Coghinas), and more or less extensive plains (Murra, Campidano), giving rise to numerous smaller regional units that have persisted tenaciously (Gallura, Nuoro, Logudoro, Barbagia, Ogliastra, Sarcidano, Sulcis, Sarrabus, Iglesiente, etc.).

Sardinia is the only administrative division in Italy whose population remains far below its carrying capacity (61% of the land consists of uncultivated areas and pastures). Agriculture employs extensive, underdeveloped methods, and its products (cereals, vines, olives) are of modest importance. Far more widespread, however, is pastoralism, which, though primarily based on free-ranging livestock (Sardinia ranks first in Italy in the number of sheep and goats), also includes cattle and horses and plays a significant role in exports (meat, dairy products, cheeses). The coastal tuna fisheries also yield substantial catches. Sardinia is also Italy’s richest mining region, supplying, among other things, nearly all of the country’s zinc, lead, silver, and ammonium; however, isolated industries remain in a primitive state. Although much has been accomplished, much still remains to be done (land reclamation, railways, port infrastructure) to develop these resources and stimulate the economy.

Population density is uniformly low; although there are many settlements due to the small percentage of scattered population, they are generally small: only Cagliari slightly exceeds 100,000 inhabitants.

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| Province | Area in sq. km | Population (1936 census) (in thousands) | Density per sq. km | Population of the provincial capital (in thousands) |
|-------------|----------------|------------------------------------------|--------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| Cagliari | 9,297 | 505 | 640 | 69 |
| Nuoro | 7,272 | 217 | 249 | 34 |
| Sassari | 7,519 | 303 | 350 | 47 |
| SARDINIA | 24,088 | 1,025 | 1,239 | 51 |

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- 1.

II. HISTORY

Around the mid-6th century BCE, after contesting the island with the Greeks, the Carthaginians secured control of Sardinia and established themselves primarily in the southern and western coastal zones, while the tribes of the interior remained free, partly shielded by the malaria that afflicted those regions. After the Mercenary War, Sardinia became a Roman possession in 238 BCE and served Rome as a strategic base and a source of grain supplies. In 226 BCE, Sardinia was organized as a province together with Corsica. Under the Empire, Romanization extended even into the interior. The first evidence of Christian penetration can be traced to the early 3rd century, brought by Christian deportees sent to the island from the mainland; subsequently, the first dioceses likely arose. Unconfirmed tradition identifies St. Simplicius as the first bishop and commemorates the martyrs Gavinus, Saturninus, and Ephisius. During the reign of Commodus, the future Pope Callistus was exiled to Sardinia.

In 235 Pope Pontian and the priest Hippolytus (an opponent of Callistus) were exiled to Sardinia, where they met their death. After the Edict of Constantine, there is isolated mention of a bishop of Cagliari, Quintasius. In the same 4th century, mention should be made of the bishop Lucifer of Cagliari, who fought strenuously against Arianism and against Constantius. Lucifer was the metropolitan bishop of Sardinia, while Sardinia and Corsica were declared suburbicarian provinces of the diocese of Italy. Conquered by the Vandals in 455, Sardinia suffered Arian persecution and became a refuge for exiled African bishops. When it returned to imperial control, it became, under Justinian, one of the seven provinces of the African prefecture. Byzantium exploited the island economically and then abandoned it, which allowed the Church’s economic and political power to grow ever stronger. Gregory the Great worked to reorganize the island in both religious and civil matters. Then, for three centuries, Sardinia suffered Arab raids and depredations, but it was saved with the help of the Franks, Pisa, and Genoa. The severing of ties with Byzantium increased the Church’s predominance, which played a notable role in the formation and life of the four giudicati (Cagliari, Arborea, Logudoro, Gallura) into which the island was politically divided after the year 1000. Diocesan boundaries coincided with those of the giudicati. The Church’s influence was further consolidated by the Cassinese monks, who received donations (v. BARISONI), acquired properties, founded churches and monasteries. In 1063 the first Benedictine monastery was established in Logudoro. The sovereignty of the Holy See was explicitly affirmed for the first time by Gregory VII. With Rome’s support, Pisan rule was meanwhile extending across the island: Urban II appointed the archbishop of Pisa as apostolic legate for Sardinia. The policy of Innocent III strengthened ecclesiastical power, but did not eliminate the conflicts arising from the wretched conditions of the secular clergy and the wealth and privileges of the monasteries. In 1226 the Synod of Santa Giusta was held in Sardinia, which applied the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council. Meanwhile, Genoa, which disputed Pisa’s possession of Sardinia, succeeded in prevailing in Logudoro and part of Arborea. On 4 April 1297 Boniface VIII infeudated Sardinia to James II of Aragon, and the grant was confirmed by Benedict XI, Clement V, and John XXII. In 1326 Pisa was forced to abandon the island, but the Sardinians resisted for a long time; the final, futile defense was led by Eleanor of Arborea (d. 1404). In the 15th century the archbishop of Cagliari began to use the title of primate, but more for political than religious reasons, since Cagliari was the center most favored by the Spanish. After the great religious revival that followed the Catholic Reformation, at the beginning of the 17th century the dispute over precedence between Cagliari and Sassari was effectively resolved in favor of Cagliari. Spain carried out a thorough penetration and managed to replace an Italian “custom” with a Spanish one. It also made some efforts to improve the island’s conditions, but until the beginning of the 18th century Sardinia was plagued by continuous struggles between the nobility and royal officials, between the nobility and the clergy, and between the higher and lower clergy. After the brief Austrian occupation, a result of the War of the Spanish Succession, the attempt at a revival by Alberoni failed, and Sardinia was assigned to Piedmont. Victor Amadeus II had to struggle against the hostility of the ruling class, which remained loyal to Spain, and his actions were made more difficult by the conflict between his absolutist tendencies and the Sardinians’ spirit of autonomy. But the most serious clashes occurred in the jurisdictional sphere: the abusive and enormous extension of immunities (privileges of clergy, fictitious clerics) hindered the island’s economic recovery and the establishment of better social justice. Finally, the Piedmontese ambassador D’Ormea, aided by Cardinal Agostino Pipia, a Sardinian, and by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, was able to conclude a Concordat with Benedict XIII (25 October 1726) that restored religious peace to Sardinia and consolidated Savoyard power. While upholding the rights of regalia, Victor Amadeus II, and even more his successor Charles Emmanuel III, adopted a policy of moderation and understanding in their dealings with the Church. After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, especially through the work of the minister Bogino (1759–73), the Sardinian government did much to heal the island’s economy, to improve the cultural and financial conditions of the clergy. The rigid absolutism of Victor Amadeus III provoked reactions against “Piedmontism.” During the French Revolution Sardinia

SARDINIA - The cathedral of Cagliari (13th–14th century).

continued to experience economic hardship even after Victor Emmanuel I, driven from Piedmont, found refuge there in 1806. A period of reforms began in Sardinia under Charles Felix, who served as viceroy until 1816 and continued his work after 1821; but above all under Charles Albert, who reorganized education, improved roads and cities, worked to spread the Italian language and culture, and in 1835 decreed the abolition of feudalism. All the measures of the kingdom aimed to prepare for union with Piedmont, which took place in December 1847. After 1848 Sardinia suffered—sometimes with unusual slowness, but often with singular harshness—the repercussions of the long conflict between Church and State, which was not settled until 1929. In the religious sphere, a process of reorganization was begun in 1905 by Pius X with the reform of the seminaries and continued by Pius XI. In 1924, seven centuries after the Synod of Santa Giusta, a Plenary Council of Sardinia was held that established the foundations of diocesan legislation.

Sardinia obtained regional autonomy under the Constitution of the Italian Republic.

III. Art

While in prehistoric and protohistoric times Sardinia developed an autonomous and original culture amply documented by the nuraghi and characteristic artifacts such as the small bronze figures found even in Sicily and Etruria (proto-Tyrrhenian tombs of Vetulonia), from the period of Roman domination it ceased to produce its own themes; archaeological finds in fact indicate substantial adherence to the forms of the artistic civilization of the dominators, translated only in ways conditioned by the materials the island could provide.

This process continued during the period of Byzantine influence (6th–10th centuries) and the subsequent Genoese, Pisan (the richest in artistic works), and Aragonese dominations (11th–15th centuries), particularly with regard to buildings of religious and military use. Only in painting—as Arru has demonstrated—is it possible to speak, from the last decades of the 15th century until the mid-16th, of a local school with its own characteristics. The manor then flourished in the forms of Neapolitan and Spanish art, with which the island maintained continuous and decisive exchanges until the advent of Piedmontese rule (16th–18th centuries). From this point onward, Sardinian art, in its scarce valid testimonies, conformed to the predominant concepts of the Neoclassical academy and Romanticism, adopting—without reworking—the distant echoes of the peninsula. A notable revival, however, characterizes the most recent era, since the region began to be reevaluated, including economically.

The principal monuments of the Byzantine and pre-Romanesque periods are: the ancient church of S. Saturnino (now SS. Cosma e Damiano) in Cagliari—already mentioned in the 6th century in a Life of S. Fulgenzio—and that of S. Giovanni di Sinis (8th–10th centuries), both originally in the Greek-cross plan and later adapted to the basilican module of Romanesque-Pisan constructions in the 12th century. Singular, for its central plan analogous to that of the baptisteries of Galliano (Cantù) and S. Tommaso di Amenno S. Salvatore (Bergamo)—and thus presumably the work of a Lombard master—is the small church of S. Sabina in Silanus (before 1000).

The Romanesque-Pisan constructions, which constitute the most imposing and artistically significant ensemble, have been divided by D. Scano into three groups corresponding to three distinct periods. This classification has been accepted by Toscano and Bielo. The archaic group (11th–12th centuries, first half) has its prototypes in S. Savino of Portotorres, with its singular plan that repeats the scheme of Roman imperial basilicas by having two apses at the ends of the central nave and entrances from the sides, and in S. Maria del Regno of Ardara. It is characterized by the uniformly repeated motif of hanging arches along the sides, by bifora or trifora windows crowning the façades, and by small rose windows. To this group belong S. Giusta of Oristano, S. Simplicio of Terranova, S. Maria d’Uta, and S. Maria di Trattalis.

The second group features false loggias on the fronts and arches supported by isolated columns and small pilasters (12th–13th centuries). Included here are S. Trinità of Saccargia, S. Maria of Tergu, S. Antico of Bisarcio, S. Michele of Ploiano, S. Pietro of Sorres, and S. Pietro of Bulzi. From these buildings appear to derive the major and later examples of Pisa (the Duomo, S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, etc.) and Lucca (S. Giusto, S. Maria del Giudice).

In the constructions of the third group (13th–14th centuries, second half), traditional Romanesque decorative elements are joined by Gothic motifs (ogival bifora windows and molded fascias with trilobed arches on the gables), for example, in the churches built by the Donoratico family in Villa di Chiesa, on the sides of the cathedral of Cagliari, and in the Carmelite church of Mogoro. Common to all three groups is the use of horizontal stringcourses and the frequent presence of lozenges and radiating circles beneath the arches. The plan and structures usually have modest development. In these centuries, few religious buildings deviate from these schemes, revealing different orientations or derivations. It will suffice to mention S. Pietro in Zuri, where the Comacine master Anselmo rigorously adhered to Lombard construction criteria and the style of its phytomorphic, zoomorphic, heraldic, and symbolic decoration; S. Pantano in Villa Speciosa; and S. Maria Maddalena near Oristano.

During the period of Aragonese rule, Catalan Gothic prevailed in internal arrangements. It struggled, however, at least initially, to assert itself in exteriors, where the traditional Romanesque-Pisan manner long persisted (S. Maria of Tiesi, S. Pantaleone of Martis), even when the successful solutions of the cathedral of Alghero (though disfigured in modern times by unfortunate restorations: the original portal and the slender bell tower on the façade can still be admired) determined a more decisive turn toward the new style (parish churches of Semestene, Bonorva, Macomer, and Padria). It would eventually prevail and become universally established by the end of the 14th century (cathedrals of Oristano and Iglesias, many churches of Cagliari, S. Pietro in Silki in Sassari, and the majority of the island’s parish churches) and would persist in weary repetitions until the introduction of the Baroque (17th century).

Civil architecture, insignificant within settlements, is instead notable in the imposing fortifications with which the Genoese and Pisan rulers and the principal indigenous feudal houses sought to secure their dominion and defend themselves, especially from maritime incursions (12th–14th centuries). Scattered throughout, but especially along the coasts, are ruined castles and remains of solid walls that attest to the advanced techniques of military construction. It will suffice to recall, among them all, the formidable Pisan *castrum* of Cagliari, from which rise the two towers of S. Pancrazio and the Elephant, works of the Sardinian architect Capula (14th century).

Sculpture left poor and scarcely interesting local testimonies that, throughout the Middle Ages, did not stray from the Romanesque decorative formulas. Only the popular expressive vein occasionally produced noteworthy wooden examples, intended, however, for pictorial effects in the magniloquence of drapery and the vivid, discordant chromaticism. The island’s greatest monument, the magnificent pulpit by that *magister* Guillelmus (12th century)—documented as an assistant to Bonanno in Pisa—was transferred from that city’s Duomo to Cagliari’s in 1312, but it does not appear to have exerted any significant influence on local art.

Painting, however, allows for a fairly precise outline of the diverse orientations and influences to which the centers of local culture adapted, identifiable as early as the 9th century in Cagliari, in the giudicato of Arborea, and in Torres. Indeed, this last city is indicated in a 9th-century charter as the homeland of the best and most active artists. The few surviving traces (for example, in the cathedral of Ardara, where we know a master Costantino worked) document the influence of Byzantine iconography, translated into the modes of popular monastic language, no differently from what occurred in Italian territories under Eastern administration. From the 12th to the 14th century, alongside these, motifs and themes of Tuscan painting were adopted (Saccargia), until Aragonese rule opened the door to Catalan painters, who from the second half of the 14th century began to receive commissions on the island.

Cagliari became the center for the spread of Spanish influence. The church and convent of S. Francesco in Stampace (collapsed in 1872) were the first to host and propagate works of this school, of which only two examples assignable to the 14th century remain in the Pinacoteca of Cagliari: a *Crucifixion* and a *Saint Knight*.

The tendency to resolve every problem of volume and space through decorative line, the miniaturist adherence of enamelled colour in which three harmonies predominate (gold, red and blue), clearly indicate the distance separating this art from the contemporary language of Italian painting. Local artists slavishly conformed to such models. In the 15th century, the Barcelonans Raffaele Thomas, Giovanni Figuera, Giovanni Barcelo and Jaime Huguet (1448–87) worked in Sardinia. The latter is attributed the panel of St Bernardino in the Pinacoteca of Cagliari (c. 1451). From Barcelo and Huguet sprang the artists who gave life to the local school, from Pietro and Lorenzo Cavaro (authors respectively of the altarpieces in the parish churches of Villamar and Gonnostramatza) to the so-called Master of Castelsardo, down to Giovanni Muru (St Mary of Ardara). The most singular works are the two ‘retablos’ of Castelsardo and Tuili, both by the Master of Castelsardo, as Aru has demonstrated.

The school departed from Catalan models in its search for monumentality and abstraction, in which a debatable influence of Antonello da Messina and central Italian art has been recognised. Its vitality expired in the mid-16th century. From this point the island opened to Italian influence, above all through the presence of Tuscan artists (Bacio Gorino, active in Cagliari; Codroganus, Carghe, etc.; then in the 17th century Giacomo Conti, active at Bonaria), Neapolitans (Girolamo Imparato, who signed a panel in the church of the Carmine in Cagliari in 1594) and Romans (Giacomo Altamonti, late 17th century, who resided in Cagliari). They influenced the leading local painters (Andrea Lusso of Ollasta, active at Martis and Colangianus between 1590 and 1615; Diego Pinna of Sassari, second half of the 17th century), imposing the modes of academic Mannerism, which, as has been said, would dominate unchallenged until the 19th century, through the experiences of Neoclassicism and genre painting.

In the minor arts, however, the inventiveness of Sardinian craftsmen preserved, especially in the centuries of lesser brilliance in the major arts, the prestige of their own excellence: superior-quality artefacts are found among carved woodwork (gilded frames of the 15th and 16th centuries, Madonnas) and above all in goldsmithing (processional crosses of St Francis in Oristano; of the cathedral of Cagliari; reliquary of the cathedral of Ales, etc.). Sardinian craftsmen also worked outside the island: the Cagliaritan Giovanni Cioni, for example, executed the processional cross of the cathedral of Salemi in Sicily.

IV. REGIONE CONCILIARE

It comprises the entire territory of the island and the adjacent small islands, with three metropolitan sees: Cagliari, Oristano and Sassari, and twelve dioceses in all, of which Ampurias and Tempio are united. In the metropolitan circumscription of Cagliari are included the dioceses of Iglesias, Nuoro and Ogliastra; in that of Sassari are included the dioceses of Alghero, Ampurias and Tempio, Bosa and Ozieri. Oristano has a single suffragan diocese that, however, bears the two names of Ales and Terralba.

The episcopal conference meets in Cuglieri (Nuoro), which is also the seat of the regional seminary (Pontificio Seminario regionale sardo del S. Cuore), run by the Jesuits. The regional tribunal of first instance, in accordance with the motu proprio Qua cura of 8 December 1938 (AAS, 30 [1938], pp. 410–13), has its seat in Cagliari and has as its court of appeal the Tribunal of the Vicariate of Rome.

The last plenary council was celebrated on 25 May 1924 (cf. Concilium Plenarium Sardum, Roma 1925).

V. FOLKLORE

Sardinia constitutes, from the point of view of folklore as well as of language, a predominantly conservative area: a veritable ethnological island. The survival in it of certain archaic forms of tradition has been demonstrated—forms that must once have been widespread over a vast area and that still exist among the Basques or in the Balkans, and among the primitives of Africa and America: the flat loaf of bread; the cart with solid wheels similar to the ancient *plastrum*; the two types of plough, that of Logudoro of Roman type and that of Gallura of Egyptian type; the bullroarer, used as a child’s toy during Lent and Holy Week, which also retains a certain sacred character; and various other agricultural tools and usages. Moreover, the betrothal ceremony (*pricunta*) is found identically in the Baltic countries; it unfolds in Gallura thus: the betrothed’s cortege moves at a gallop amid rifle shots, as if assaulting a fortress, and stops before the girl’s house; on the threshold stands her father with a poet beside him, and then a dialogue takes place, often in verse, following a traditional scheme: the suitor says that he and his companions are searching for a lost dove or kid, and the father invites them to enter and look; the young man is presented one by one with all the women of the house, and finally the chosen one, dressed in her finest, is recognised as the dove or kid sought, amid shouts of joy and further shots outside. Also alive in Sardinia is the custom of the wedding procession on horseback, which gives rise to the race of the distaff (*la curita di la rucca*): two riders take part, one representing the man’s side, the other the woman’s, and the winner is the one who first reaches and seizes an adorned distaff.

The ribbons that the bride, riding with her father, extends with an outstretched arm; at other times the palio is run between several knights, one of whom receives the *rucca* from the bride’s father, and he immediately flees toward the church pursued by the others who try to touch the horse’s tail to take possession of the *rucca*; the game continues on the return journey, and the knight who still holds the *rucca* when they reach the courtyard of the *stazzo* is declared the winner. The bride rewards the victor with one of the five ribbons from the distaff as a mark of honor.

Among the elements of wedding attire, the crown is one of the most significant: in a lithograph from La Marmora’s *Voyage en Sardaigne* (1830), both bride and groom appear crowned, as was the custom in ancient times.

Even the ceremonial rites of death recall very ancient usages. In Sardinia, as in other Mediterranean regions, the practice survives of turning the deceased’s feet toward the door, a custom found in Etruscan tombs and Egyptian necropolises, and the custom of eating a funeral meal of fava beans and eggs, foods once considered symbolic and consecrated in antiquity to the souls of the dead. Yet an even more widespread practice in Sardinia—especially in Barbagia—is the dirge, already reflected in ancient Indian epics and in Homer: women called *attittadoras* sing the praises of the deceased, and their songs, known as *attittos*, once served, in cases of murder, to stir the spirits to vengeance (Lat. *attitiae*).

The existence, reported by some travelers on hearsay, of women (called *accabadòras*) who were said to have ended the sufferings of the dying by suffocating them has proved to be a fantastic and romantic invention. Numerous magical practices that accompany the main moments of human life also confirm the persistence in Sardinia of a primitive mentality. To ward off witches who, in the form of cats, suck the blood of newborns, mothers place near the cradle a sickle with many teeth, a broom, or grains of wheat: the witches stop to count the sickle’s teeth, the broom’s straws, or the grains, but since they cannot go beyond the number seven, they are surprised at dawn and forced to retreat.

Special stones and herbs are used to ward off the evil eye and protect against illness. In other cases, medicinal substances are derived from animals: at Padria, eyes are treated by bathing them with the blood of beef liver; at Cagliari, by rubbing them with a murex shell shaped like an eye, called the “eye of St. Lucy,” or with a cross, while reciting certain incantations known only to fishermen.

Regarding the cycle of the year, Carnival in Sardinia preserves remarkably strong traces of its original ritual character: from the slow, danced procession of the *mamutones*—shepherds and farmers in masks, with a bundle of two cowbells on their backs and jingling bells around their necks—and the *isocadores*, who carry a *soca* (a long rope for animals), emerging into the streets of the town on January 17 (or, in other times, on Epiphany or Christmas; to the burning of the Carnival effigy called *Giorgio* (a remarkable and perhaps unique survival in Italy of the spring cult of this saint), which is first carried around on horseback or donkey back, followed by a crowd shouting and singing various couplets, such as in Sassari: “Giochi mici cumenti se andaddu,” and in Cagliari: “È morto canciofari, canciofà... È morto carnovali, e carnova... Binu nided'ebon, nided'ebon.”

Worthy of note, for their magical foundation, are the elements that make up the ritual complex of the feast of St. John: the votive fires lit with great piles of wood (in Gallura and Anglona they use a special herb with little yellow flowers, called *bion-della*, whose scent keeps witches away, for they roam at night with the souls of the slain); around the fires, young men and women dance and leap, becoming *comari* and *compares* by exchanging three times the knotted tips of a handkerchief, untying the knots and alternately placing their hands one over the other while uttering special formulas that vary from place to place; and finally, the healing practice (also known elsewhere) of passing the afflicted child three times through the split of a tree.

Of the calendar festivals, the most celebrated are those of the *Candelieri* in Sassari and Nulvi (August 14) and the procession of May 19 in Cagliari in honor of St. Ephisius. On these occasions, one can especially admire the beauty and variety of Sardinian costumes: notable are those of Osilo for the harmony of their lines and colors, and of Quartu Sant’Elena for the richness of their gold, silver, and gems.

The characteristic dance of the Sardinians is the *ballo tondo*, a kind of round dance that usually opens the festivities: the dancers form a long chain in a circle, and in the center stand the musicians with their distinctive instruments, the *lionedda* or *lunedda*, the bagpipe, and the tambourine.

Popular poetry also exhibits a conservative aspect and is intrinsic to the ethnic character of the inhabitants: setting aside funeral dirges, hymns to the saints (*gòsos*), and lullabies (*dun-dun*), the principal form of lyric song, the *mutu*, with its characteristic meter and poetic technique (it almost always consists of two parts, the *istreria* and the *torrada*, linked only by rhyme), is confined to Sardinia and is not found in any other region of Italy.

Finally, the forms of rural housing are elementary, in relation to the predominant economic activities of the inhabitants, which are pastoralism and agriculture; the single- or two-room dwelling in Sardinia already indicates a level of development compared to the rectangular hut and the pastoral enclosure, whose persistence throughout the island expresses the traditional economic life. In some primitive customs, such as the *ponidura* in Gallura, this life reveals a sense of solidarity and courtesy that characterizes the soul of the Sardinian shepherd: when natural disasters (epidemics, floods, etc.) destroy a shepherd’s flock, he can rebuild it by requesting a young head of livestock from each of the other shepherd-proprietors.

**See plates CXXVI–CXXVII.**

**

SARDI, FILIPPO. Archbishop. Born in Lucca on October 18, 1736; died there on March 8, 1826. His life was closely tied to the political events of the Lucchese state, in which he played a major role.

Elected archbishop of his native city on 3 August 1789, he found himself exercising his long ministry amid the political changes that the small aristocratic republic underwent as it became a principality under the rule of Elisa, sister of Napoleon, and her husband Felice Baciocchi (1805–14). As a consequence, he had to endure the new order of things created by French legislation, which overturned all ancient relations. The Saint did not fail to oppose energetically when, in 1806, it was sought to extend to Lucca even the Concordat of 1803 between the Holy See and the Italian Republic, in which the protection of episcopal and ecclesiastical rights was upheld by the approval of Pius VII, with whom the Saint maintained a frequent correspondence. After the fall of the Baciocchi principality, Monsignor S. was the principal inspiration behind the political action of the provisional regency, preventing, among other things, any reprisals against the Bonapartists. Once the Bourbons of Parma were installed in Lucca, by virtue of the well-known clause of the Congress of Vienna, he became the most heeded counsellor of Maria Luisa of Bourbon, who governed the duchy on behalf of her younger son and immediately entered into relations with Pius VII with a view to restoring relations between Church and State and reinstating ecclesiastical arrangements that had been overturned during the previous regime. This was indeed accomplished by the papal brief of 8 April 1820 and by the special provisions subsequently agreed upon with the Holy See. During this period of restoration, the Saint continued tirelessly in the spiritual care of his clergy and people, and a few months before his death he carried out his pastoral visitation for the fourth time in the alpine parishes of the Garfagnana.

SARDIÇA (Serdica). Today Sofia. The name derives from the Thracian tribe of the Serdi (Dio Cass., L. 25). In the reorganization given by Trajan to the Dacian region after the conquest, it took the name of Ulpia Serdica.

From the 3rd century it was assigned to Lower Dacia. Having been sacked by Attila, it was later fortified by Justinian, whose ruins remain, for the defence of the territory (Procopius, *De Aed.*, 4, 1; 4, 4). Owing to its position in the great Illyricum on the border between the two portions, western and eastern, of the Empire, it was, like the whole Danubian region, the seat of legionary formations recruited locally. Many imperial constitutions are dated from S., and are collected in the *Theodosian Code*. Natives of S. were the two emperors Galerius and Maximinus Daia.

The Council of S. — A synod was most probably held in 343 (Mansi, Hefele-Leclercq in 344, E. Schwartz in 342), convoked by Constans I and Constantius II at the initiative of Pope Julius I. About 180 bishops attended, among them about 80 Orientals adhering to the Semi-Arianism. It was Ossius of Córdoba who presided, assisted by the papal legates, the priests Archidamus and Philoxenus. The Synod was a vigorous reaffirmation of Nicene orthodoxy against the spread of Semi-Arianism.

The Semi-Arian bishops, taking occasion from the presence at the Synod of St Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Asclepiades of Gaza—whom they regarded as deposed—formed not far from S. a rival council which excommunicated Pope Julius, Ossius, and others, and promulgated a new dogmatic symbol that harks back to the 4th Antiochene formula of 341.