CORIA, DIOCESE of. - A city of Spain, suffragan to Toledo, situated on the eastern borders of Portugal. There is no information concerning the religious life
of the diocese and its bishops until 589, that is, until the Third Council of Toledo, at which the conversion of the Visigoths and of the entire Spanish people to the Catholic faith was proclaimed.
Among the 62 bishops attending that assembly, Bishop Giacinto of C. signs last, which suggests that he had been consecrated recently. He was succeeded by Elia, who subscribed at Toledo in 610 to a decree of King Gundemaro concerning the Carthaginian metropolitan see; after him the diocese was governed by Bonifacio I, Giovanni, Atula, and Bonifacio II, who attended the various Councils of Toledo. During the time of Pietro (713), C. was occupied by the Saracens, and thus the see remained vacant for almost a century and a half; indeed, it may be said for more than four centuries, since Bishops Babila and Giacomo (860–915) resided elsewhere. With the reconquest of the city in the thirteenth century and with Bishop Iñigo Navarron, the uninterrupted succession of the prelates of Coria begins again. The diocese covers an area of 9,742 sq. km., with 131 parishes, 176 diocesan priests and 17 regular clergy serving its 249,518 inhabitants, all Catholics (1949). Its patron is St. Pietro d'Alcantara.