CARTAGENA, Diocese of. — C. comprises almost the entirety of the provinces of Murcia and Albacete (Spain), as well as some towns in those of Alicante and Almería. It covers an area of 21,002 sq. km. The 1,076,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, are distributed across 291 parishes. There are 290 diocesan priests and 90 religious. In 1948, the episcopal residence was in Murcia.
An ancient tradition holds that C. was the first diocese established in Spain. Historically, however, the exact chronology of the diocese’s origins cannot be determined. At the Council of Elvira (early 4th century), the priest Euticea subscribed in the name of the church of C. Bishops of C. are also recorded: Hector in 516, Celsinus in 546 (who presided over the Council of Valencia), St. Fulgentius (556), patron of the diocese, and Licinianus. After the destruction of C. by the Vandals (425), both C. and Toledo were styled metropolitans of the province of C., until the Council of Toledo in 610 reserved this title for the bishop of Toledo.
When C. was recaptured during the reign of Ferdinand III the Saint, the see of C. was reestablished, immediately subject to the Holy See in 1251, with Francisco Pedro Gallego as its bishop. Bishop Diego Martínez Magaz obtained from Pope Nicholas III the transfer of the see from C. to Murcia to protect it from African corsairs, a decision enacted in 1289. Under Pius IV, the diocese of C. was divided, giving rise to the new diocese of Orihuela. By virtue of the Concordat of 1851, the diocese of C. became a suffragan of Granada.
Illustrious figures from C. include the Jewish convert Paul of St. Mary, later a master of theology in Paris and bishop of C., author of a *Summa de cronicas* and a *Scrutinium Scripturarum*; also bishop of C. was the renowned professor at Paris and Salamanca, Juan Martínez Silíceo, before being promoted to archbishop of Toledo. Bishop Antonio Trexo petitioned the Holy See as early as 1627 for the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception. The most illustrious bishop of C. was Luis Belluga Moncada (1704–24), who supported Philip V against the claims of the Archduke Charles of Austria and generously founded numerous churches and charitable institutions. He was created cardinal in 1719, but after five years resigned the bishopric and retired to Rome, where he died in a reputation for great piety; so much so that Benedict XIV called him “the honor of the Sacred College.”
Monuments. — For C.: on the site of the ancient cathedral stands the church of Santa María la Antigua, almost entirely rebuilt in 1904, with sculptures by F. Salzillo (1707–48) that are also found in the churches of Santo Domingo and Santa María de la Graza. The cathedral of Murcia, begun in the 14th century and completed in the 15th, with three naves and a Latin-cross plan, is a fine example of Gothic style, crowned by its 90-meter tower, famous throughout Spain, its prized stalls from the monastery of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, its main façade partly Baroque and partly Neoclassical, while the southern façade is by Antonio Gil (1440), and the Vélez chapel, a national monument. In the church of the Gesù are preserved Salzillo’s sculptures depicting the Passion of Christ. Notable in the diocese of C. are also the church of San Patricio at Lorca, that of Santiago at Jumilla, and the grand church of San Juan at Albacete.
