Tuam, Archdiocese of

TUAM, Archdiocese of. - City and archdiocese in western Ireland. It has an area of 7,560 sq. miles with a population of 158,400 inhabitants, of whom 147,300 are Catholics distributed in 56 parishes, served by 176 diocesan priests and 228 regulars; it has a seminary, 15 male religious communities and 27 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 435). It comprises about half of the counties of Galway and Mayo and a small part of the county of Roscommon. It is the most extensive diocese in Ireland. It includes the territories of five ancient dioceses: T., Annaghdown, Cong, Mayo and Aghagower.

The primitive diocese of T. was founded by St. Jarlath around the year 520, and became an archiepiscopal and metropolitan see of Connacht with the Synod of Kells in 1152.

At that time 7 suffragan bishops were subject to T., namely the bishops of Mayo, Killala, Roscommon, Clonfert, Achonry, Clonmacnoise and Kilmacduagh. Currently the archbishop of T. has as suffragans the bishops of Achonry, Elphin, Clonfert, Killala and Galway. In 1152 Hugh O' Hession became the first archbishop of T.; upon his death in 1161 he was succeeded by Cathal O' Duffy, who was present at the Lateran Council of 1179. Maurice O' Filhily, a Franciscan who was made bishop in 1506 and died at Galway in 1513, was known as Flos mundi because of his great erudition; he commented on many works of John Duns Scotus. Another Franciscan, Florence Conry, was archbishop from 1609 to 1629 but never visited his see; he was very versed in the works of St. Augustine and defended the interests of Irish Catholics at the court of Spain and elsewhere while he was archbishop. Malachy O' Queely, who was archbishop from 1630 to 1645, reconciled many heretics to the true Church and administered the sacrament of Confirmation to 100,000 souls; he was an ardent patriot and was killed on the battlefield near the city of Sligo. The most representative bishop was John MacHale (v.). John Mac Evilly, who died in 1902, was also a learned and zealous prelate: he wrote commentaries in English on almost the entire New Testament.

In the diocese of T., near the town of Westport, there is the holy mountain of Croagh Patrick, where St. Patrick (v.) fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights; on the last Sunday of July each year thousands of the faithful go there in pilgrimage. Another place of pilgrimage in the diocese is Knock, where the Blessed Virgin with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appear to have appeared at the end of the last century; the faithful coming from many regions visit Knock every year.

Cataldo Giblin

TU AUTEM, DOMINE, MISERERE NOBIS.

- With these words, to which the choir responds "Deo gratias," the reader ends the individual lessons of the Divine Office and the readings in the refectory, already in use in the 8th century (Ordo Romanus XIX, 13 [ed. Andrieu]).

To end the reading, at first more extended, of the Office, the superior gave a sign, a knock on the table (loc. cit., 11; Charlemagne is said to have given the signal "baculo aut sono gutturis") or according to the Ordines Romani XI, 8, and XII, 14 (ed. Mabillon) the deacon recalled to the reader the first words "Tu autem," and the reader continued by repeating them and saying the entire verse. Therefore after "Tu autem" one does not supply: "cease," "desist" or similar words. Besides the T. a. other endings were also in use, as still in the first Nocturn of the sacred triduum after the Lamentations of Jeremiah "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum," or after the reading of the prophets "Haec dicit Dominus..." or after that of the Apostle "in Christo Jesu Domino nostro" etc. The short Chapters of Vespers, Lauds and the Little Hours, because they were already determined beforehand and said from memory, do not end with the T. a., but are followed by the "Deo Gratias."

T. a. is explained as a request for forgiveness from God for any defects during the reading or, better, as a prayer to obtain the fruits of the reading. Analogously to this final thanksgiving of the reading, the blessing of the reader precedes.

As St. Benedict hints (Rule, chs. 9 and 11), the reader receives from the superior a blessing or a kind of authorization, requested with the formula "Jube, domne, benedicere," "Benedic pater," or similar, a blessing already used by St. Ambrose. Formularies of this blessing exist in great variety. Even the bishop or the pope, before reading, asks the blessing with the "Jube, Domine, benedicere," addressing with the "Domine" God himself (the contracted term domne indicates the earthly and temporal lord), but no one blesses and the choir responds immediately "Amen."

Pietro Siffrin