Roman Catholic Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón

Map of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón (dark green)

The Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón (Latin, Segobiensis; Castellionensis, Valencian: Diòcesi de Sogorb-Castelló) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Castellón, part of the autonomous community of Valencia. The diocese forms part of the ecclesiastical province of Valencia, and is thus suffragan to the Archdiocese of Valencia.

In 1912 the diocese was bounded on the north by Castellón and Teruel, on the east by Castellón, on the south by Valencia, and on the west by Valencia and Teruel, had its jurisdiction in the civil Provinces of Castellón, Valencia, Teruel and Cuenca.

The cathedral of Segorbe, once a mosque, has been completely rebuilt in such a manner that it preserves no trace of Arab architecture. It is connected by a bridge with the old episcopal palace. Its time-stained tower and its cloister are built on a trapezoidal ground-plan. The church was reconsecrated in 1534, and in 1795 the nave was lengthened, and new altars added, in the episcopate of Lorenzo Gómez de Haedo.

The seminary is in the Jesuit college given by king Carlos III. The convents of the Dominicans, Franciscans, the Augustinian nuns, and the Charterhouse (Cartuja) of Valdecristo have been converted to secular uses.

History

No name of any Bishop of Segorbe is known earlier than Proculus, who signed in the Third Council of Toledo (589). Porcarius assisted at the Council of Gundemar (610); Antonius, at the Fourth Council of Toledo (633); Floridius, at the seventh (646); Eusicius, at the ninth (655) and tenth (656); Memorius, at the eleventh (675) and twelfth (681); Olipa, at the thirteenth (683); Anterius at the fifteenth (688) and sixteenth (693).

After this there are no information of its bishops until the Arab invasion, when its church was converted into a mosque.

In 1172 Pedro Ruiz de Azagra, son of the Lord of Estella, took the city of Albarracín, and succeeded in establishing there a bishop (Martín), who took the title of Arcabricense, and afterwards that of Segobricense, thinking that Albarracín was nearer to the ancient Segobriga (Segorbe) than to Ercavica or Arcabrica.

This choice of name follows the ideology of the Reconquest, according to which the bishops were simply restoring the old Christian entities only temporarily taken over by the Moors. In this way, the city of Albarracín became the seat of the bishops of Segorbe.

When Segorbe was conquered by king James I of Aragon in 1245, its church was purified, and Jimeno, Bishop of Albarracín, took possession of it. The bishops of Valencia opposed this, and Arnau of Peralta, Bishop of Valencia, entered the church of Segorbe by force of arms. The controversy being referred to Rome, and the bishops of Segorbe had part of their territory restored to them; but the Schism of the West supervened, and the status quo continued.

In 1571 Francisco Soto Salazar being bishop, the Diocese of Albarracín was separated from Segorbe.

Eminent among the bishops of Segorbe was Juan Bautista Pérez Rubert, who exposed the fraudulent chronicles. In modern times Domingo Canubio y Alberto, the Dominican, and Francisco Aguilar, author of various historical works, are worthy of mention.

In 1912 the city of Castellón de la Plana, though the capital of the province of Castellón, had no episcopal see: by the Concordat of 1851 the See of Tortosa, to which diocese a large part of the province belonged, was to be transferred to it.

In 1960 the see became the Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón. Following the De mutatione finium Dioecesium Valentinae-Segorbicensis-Dertotensis decree, of 31 May 1960, the parishes belonging to the Province of València were dismembered and aggregated to the Archdiocese of Valencia. On the other hand the Nules, Vila-real, Castelló de la Plana, Lucena and Albocàsser parishes that had belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tortosa were aggreagted to the Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón along with the parish of Betxí. Francoist propaganda presented the changes as an occasion for rejoicing.

Bishops of Segorbe (6th and 7th centuries)

• ca. 589 : Proculus — (Mentioned in the Third Council of Toledo of 589)
• ca. 610 : Porcarius — (Mentioned in the Council of Gundemar of 610)
• ca. 633 : Antonius — (Mentioned in the Fourth Council of Toledo of 633)
• ca. 646 : Floridius — (Mentioned in the Seventh Council of Toledo of 646)
• ca. 655 : Eusicius — (Mentioned in the Ninth and Tenth Councils of Toledo of 655 and 656)
• ca. 680 : Memorius — (Mentioned in the eleventh and twelfth Councils of Toledo of 675 and 681)
• ca. 683 : Olipa — (Mentioned in the Thirteenth Council of Toledo of 683)
• ca. 690 : Anterius — (Mentioned in the fifteenth and sixteenth Councils of Toledo of 688 and 693)

See suppressed (unknown - 1173)

Bishops of Segorbe (1173-1259)

Bishops of Segorbe with seat in Albarracín. All the names are given in Spanish:

1. 1173-1213 : Martín
2. 1213-1215 : Hispano
3. 1216-1222 : Juan Gil
4. 1223-1234 : Domingo
5. 1235-1238 : Guillermo
6. 1245-1246 : Jimeno
7. 1246-1259 : Pedro

Bishops of Segorbe-Albarracín (1259-1576)

All the names are given in Spanish:

1. 1259-1265 : Martín Álvarez
2. 1265-1272 : Pedro Garcés
3. 1272-1277 : Pedro Jiménez de Segura
4. 1284-1288 : Miguel Sánchez
5. 1288-1301 : Aparicio
6. 1302-1318 : Antonio Muñoz
7. 1319-1356 : Sancho Dull
8. 1356-1362 : Elías
9. 1362-1369 : Juan Martínez de Barcelona
10. 1369-1387 : Iñigo de Valterra
11. 1387-1400 : Diego de Heredia
12. 1400-1409 : Francisco Riquer y Bastero
13. 1410-1427 : Juan de Tauste
14. 1428-1437 : Francisco de Aguiló
15. 1438-1445 : Jaime Gerart
16. 1445-1454 : Gisberto Pardo de la Casta
17. 1455-1459 : Luis de Milá y Borja
18. 1461-1473 : Pedro Baldó
19. 1473-1498 : Bartolomé Martí
20. 1498-1499 : Juan Marrades
21. 1500-1530 : Gilberto Martí
22. 1530-1556 : Gaspar Jofre de Borja
23. 1556-1571 : Juan de Muñatones
24. 1571-1576 : Francisco de Soto Salazar

Bishops of Segorbe (1577-1960)

1. 1577-1578 : Francisco Sancho
2. 1579-1582 : Gil Ruiz de Liori
3. 1583-1591 : Martín de Salvatierra
4. 1591-1597 : Juan Bautista Pérez Rubert
5. 1599-1609 : Feliciano de Figueroa
6. 1610-1635 : Pedro Ginés de Casanova
7. 1636-1638 : Juan Bautista Pellicer
8. 1639-1652 : Diego Serrano de Sotomayor
9. 1652-1660 : Francisco Gavaldá
10. 1661-1672 : Anastasio Vives de Rocamora
11. 1673-1679 : José Sanchís y Ferrandis
12. 1680-1691 : Crisóstomo Royo de Castellví
13. 1691-1707 : Antonio Ferrer y Milán
14. 1708-1714 : Rodrigo Marín Rubio
15. 1714-1730 : Diego Muños de Baquerizo
16. 1731-1748 : Francisco de Cepeda y Guerrero
17. 1749-1751 : Francisco Cuartero
18. 1751-1757 : Pedro Fernández Velarde
19. 1758-1770 : Blas de Arganda
20. 1770-1780 : Alonso Cano
21. 1780-1781 : Lorenzo Lay Anzano
22. 1783-1808 : Lorenzo Gómez de Haedo
23. 1814-1816 : Lorenzo Algüero Ribera
24. 1816-1821 : Francisco de la Dueña Cisneros
    • 1822-1824 : Vicente Ramos García — (Elected)
25. 1825-1837 : Juan Sanz Palanco
26. 1847-1864 : Domingo Canubio y Alberto
27. 1865-1868 : Joaquín Hernández Herrero
28. 1868-1875 : José Luis Montagut
29. 1876-1880 : Mariano Miguel Gómez
30. 1880-1899 : Francisco Aguilar
31. 1900-1907 : Manuel García Cerero y Soler
32. 1907-1911 : Antonio María Massanet
33. 1913-1934 : Luis Amigó Ferrer
34. ---------1936 : Miguel Serra Sucarrats
35. 1944-1950 : Ramón Sanahuja y Marcé
36. 1951-1960 : José Pont y Gol

Bishops of Segorbe-Castellón (since 1960)

1. 1960-1970 : José Pont y Gol
2. 1971-1996 : José María Cases Deordal
3. 1996-2005 : Juan Antonio Reig Pla
4. 2006-today : Casimiro López Llorente —

References

This article draws from other Wikipedia articles and these two sources:

• (English) Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912: Segorbe
• (Spanish) IBERCRONOX: Obispado de Segorbe-Castellón (Segóbriga)

See also

• List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Spain.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.