SIRICIUS, POPE, St — Medallion from the ancient series of popes in the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls (5th century) — Rome.
It was to be decorated with wall paintings, of which only wretched traces have survived: only at Palmyra, in the temple of Bel converted into a church, do some paintings of saints remain. Marble revetments were not very widespread; they were reserved for the most sumptuous buildings: examples are found at Qalb Lauzeh and in the monastery of St Simeon. Mosaic pavements are rare, but careful excavations may increase the documentation on this point; in any case, what is known is far from the beauty of the examples in the coastal zone of Palestine and Transjordan.
The development of Syrian art was first halted around the middle of the 6th century by the Sasanian invasion, which devastated the entire territory, and then in the first half of the 7th century by the Muslim conquest, when buildings such as Qalb Lauzeh, Termânin, St Simeon, studied by brilliant architects as true artistic expressions and not merely as constructions intended to satisfy simple liturgical needs, promised the brightest future.
Ugo Monneret de Villard
X. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
In Syria public instruction is well developed and tends to expand further in its struggle against illiteracy. It comprises primary or elementary education, secondary education or lyceum, and higher education, corresponding to our universities. The programmes and methods, given the long period of French administrative control, are largely, and for every level and type of school, those of France.Primary school comprises 5 classes and prepares for the so-called “Syrian certificate of studies,” which, however, is not compulsory for proceeding to higher courses; for this, a certificate of eligibility is sufficient. Religion is a compulsory subject.
Secondary education covers a period of 6 years, followed by a supplementary course of 1 year for those wishing to enter university, and is provided in 5 boys’ lyceums: Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Dejil ez-Zor, and 2 girls’ lyceums: Damascus and Aleppo. It prepares for two degrees of baccalaureate: the first degree at the end of 6 years; the second degree at the end of the supplementary course. Attached to the lyceums of Damascus and Aleppo is also a normal school of 3 years, to which one gains admission from primary school and which prepares
Modest, timid, liberal, beneficent and a lover of peace, as attested by the funeral eulogy placed on his tomb, his pontificate passed in great political calm, which he took advantage of to extend his pastoral care to all churches, intervening wherever his authority was necessary and practically implementing that primacy which, already recognised in theory, had not however always been respected in the preceding centuries. S. is the first Pope to legislate alone, without consulting anyone, for the whole Church, and orders that his decisions be faithfully observed; he is considered the first author of decrees that have the same authority as conciliar decisions and canons.
The first of these acts was the letter he wrote in February 385 to Imerius, Bishop of Tarragona, in response to the questions that Bishop had addressed to Pope Damasus. In it S. clearly and explicitly affirms the primacy and authority of the Pope over the whole Church, establishing that his rulings on the baptism of converted Arians, the time for conferring baptism, the gradual conferring of Holy Orders, the continence of priests and deacons, the election of bishops, etc., have universal validity under pain of excommunication, and therefore charges Imerius to make himself known to all bishops so that the excuse of ignorance may not be invoked. During his pontificate he also held several synods, among which that of 386 is important, in which he established