Vicariate Apostolic of Dahomey
Father Damien (Joseph de Veuster)
Antoine-Elisabeth Dareste de la Chavanne
Victor Augustin Isidore Dechamps
Feast of the Dedication (Scriptural)
Defender of the Matrimonial Tie
Definitors (in Religious Orders)
Dei gratia Dei et Apostolicæ Sedis gratia
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix
Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle
Prefecture Apostolic of the Delta of the Nile
Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis
Jacques-René de Brisay Denonville
Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger
Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin
Deus in Adjutorium Meum Intende
Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno
Melchior, Baron (Freiherr) von Diepenbrock
Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite
Institute of the Divine Compassion
Daughters of the Divine Redeemer
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
Emmanuel-Henri-Dieudonné Domenech
Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet
Juan Francesco Maria de la Saludad Donoso Cortés
Clemens August von Droste-Vischering
Louis-Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg
Phillippe-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Tronson Du Coudray
Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut
Felix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup
Archdiocese of Durango (Durangum)
An official in secular deaneries and in certain religious orders. Among regulars, a definitor is appointed as a counsellor of the provincial or general superior with certain determinate powers. (See DEFINITORS IN RELIGIOUS ORDERS.) Dioceses are usually divided into deaneries, and these deaneries are again sub-divided into districts which are sometimes called definitiones. Over each district is placed an official styled definitor, who oversees the administration of ecclesiastical property and also gives aid to the dean in the more important duties of his office. Such definitors are elected by the rural chapters with the bishop's approval, or in some cases are directly appointed by the ordinary. Anciently, their principal duty was to care for and divide the revenues of a prebend between the heirs of the deceased and the new occupant, and likewise to determine what proportion of income belonged to outgoing and incoming beneficiaries of a church. The definitor acts as the representative of the dean when the latter is absent or incapacitated by illness or irregularity. It is his duty to announce to the bishop, likewise, the death of the dean and conduct preparations for the election of a successor. It is to be observed that definitors are in no sense necessary officials of a diocese, and that the duties here assigned to them are sometimes fulfilled by others. In some decanal or rural chapters the title given to the definitor is chamberlain or treasurer.
LAURENTIUS, Institutiones Jur. Eccl. (Freiburg, 1903). Corpus Juris Canonici, c. 4, X, I, 24 (c. xiii, Cone. Tiein., an. 850).
WILLIAM H.W. FANNING