Antoine de Lamothe, Sieur de Cadillac
Tommaso de Vio Gaetani Cajetan
Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada
Polidoro (da Caravaggio) Caldara
Vicariate Apostolic of Lower California
Congregation of Our Lady of Calvary
Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
Jean-Pierre Camus de Pont-Carré
Vicariate Apostolic of Canelos and Macas
Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception
Baptiste-Honoré-Raymond Capefigue
Episcopal and Pontifical Capitulations
Apostolic Prefecture of Caquetá
Diocese of Carcassonne (Carcassum)
Bartolommeo and Vincenzo Carducci
Caroline Books (Libri Carolini)
Diocese of Casale Monferrato (Casalensis)
Vicariate Apostolic of Casanare
Diocese of Castellammare di Stabia
Diocese of Castellaneta (Castania)
Count Carlo Ottavio Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Francesco Castracane degli Antelminelli
Archdiocese of Catania (Catanensis)
Catholic University of America
German Roman Catholic Central Verein of North America
Archdiocese of Chambéry (Camberium)
Vicariate Apostolic of Changanacherry
Character (in Catholic Theology)
Civil Law Concerning Charitable Bequests
Congregation of the Brothers of Charity
François-René de Chateaubriand
Timoléon Cheminais de Montaigu
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini
Ancient Diocese of Chester (Cestrensis)
Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus
Ancient Catholic Diocese of Chichester (Cicestrensis)
Children of Mary of the Sacred Heart
Domingo (San Anton y Muñon) Chimalpain
Etienne-François, Duc de Choiseul
Gilbert Choiseul du Plessis-Praslin
Order of the Knights of Christ
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
Brothers of Christian Instruction
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Congregation of Christian Retreat
Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano
Prefecture Apostolic of Cimbebasia (Upper)
Diocese of Cività Castellana, Orte, and Gallese
Diocese of Civitavecchia and Corneto
Mathieu-Nicolas Poillevillain de Clémanges
Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca
Abbey and School of Clonmacnoise
Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin Cochin
Diocese of Colle di Val d'Elsa
Diocese of Concordia (Concordia Veneta)
Diocese of Concordia (Corcondiensis in America)
Congo Independent State and Congo Missions
Diocese of Constantine (Cirta)
Philippe du Contant de la Molette
Convent Schools (Great Britain)
Order of Friars Minor Conventuals
Convocation of the English Clergy
Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown
François Edouard Joachim Coppée
Diocese of Cordova (Cordubensis)
Diocese of Cordova (Cordubensis in America)
Elena Lucrezia Piscopia Cornaro
Michel Corneille (the Younger)
Charles-Edmond-Henride Coussemaker
Brothers of the Cross of Jesus
Diocese of Cuenca (Conca in Indiis)
Vicariate Apostolic of Curaçao
A titular see of Mesopotamia. Carrhae is the Haran of the Bible. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian monuments under the name Harranu, which means "Road". It was the centre of the worship of the goddess Sin (the Moon), and was inhabited by Sabeans. Abraham came thither from Ur, in Chaldea (Gen., xi, 31), with his family, which remained there (xxvii, 43) while he went on to Canaan (xii, 1). Rebecca was born there (xxiv, 4), and Jacob lived there during fourteen years with his uncle Laban (xxviii, 2; xxxi, 3). Under King Hezekiah it was taken by the Assyrians (IV K., xix, 12; Is., xxxvii, 12). Ezechiel (xxvii, 23) says it had commercial relations with Tyrus. In the neighbouring plain Crassus was defeated and killed by the Parthians (53 B.C.); Emperor Galerius was defeated on the same site (A.D. 296).
Christianity did not make rapid progress at Carrhae. Julian the Apostate, before his expedition against the Persians, resided there in preference to Edessa, a Christian city; under Justinian most of its inhabitants were yet heathen (Procop. De bel. Pers., II, 13). In time, however, it became a suffragan of Edessa in Osrhoene. Lequien (II, 973) mentions from the fourth to the sixth century eleven bishops; among them are: Vitus, the friend of St. Basil, St. Protogenes, and St. Abrahamius. The latter died at Constantinople. Emperor Theodosius II was so impressed by his saintly life that he chose to wear his poor tunic. From the sixth century the Jacobites had at Carrhae a very flourishing Church; Patriarch Michael the Syrian enumerates seventeen bishops from the eighth to the twelfth century (Revue de l'Orient chretien, 1901, p. 197). One Latin bishop is known, but not with certainty (Eubel, I, 282). Carrhae was the residence of Merwan, the last of the Ommiad caliphs, and became the centre of a famous Mussulman school, where, in the tenth century, many Greek works were translated into Arabic. Harran, to-day a village in a wide, barren plain, destitute of trees, is not far from the river Belikh (Bilichus), and about 25 miles from Orfa (Edessa) in the vilayet of Aleppo. Its houses are shaped like sugar loaves and inhabited chiefly by bedouins. There are ruins of a Roman camp, of many churches, and of a fortress dating from the Crusades. Near the village is still to be found the well whence Rebecca was drawing water when Eliezer found her.
AINSWORTH, Researches in Assyria, Bablyonia, and Chaldæa, 153; CHESNEY, The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, I, 48, 106-15; II, 401, 426-33, 460; CHWOLSON, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, I, 301-471; STANLEY, The Jewish Church, I, 414-418; AINSWORTH, Haran in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology (1901), XIII, 385-390; BADGER, The Nestorians, 341; SACHAU, Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, 217-224; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography (London, 1878), I, 526.
S. VAILHÉ