GUADIX, DIOCESI di. — City and diocese in Spain, in the province of Granada, of which it is a suffragan see. It has an area of 4,735 sq. km, with 180,000 inhabitants, all Catholics; it comprises 74 parishes served by 68 diocesan priests and 4 religious priests, 1 seminary, 1 male religious community, and 13 female communities (1949). G. is ancient Acci in Andalusia, now entirely included in the civil province of Granada, except for 6 parishes belonging to Almeria.
Rejecting as legendary its foundation by St. Torquatus, one of the so-called “apostolic bishops,” disciples of St. James, and since the existence of his disciple St. Athanasius has not been proved, the first historical record is the presence of Bishop St. Felix at the famous Council of Iliberis (ca. 300); it is also recorded that Bishop St. Liliolus attended the Third Council of Toledo in 589, where the solemn reconciliation of the Visigothic nation with the Catholic Church took place. Despite the Saracen invasion of the 8th century, this diocese remained in existence until the conquest by the Almohads, so that Bishop Quirinus is mentioned at the Synod of Córdoba in 839. In the 15th century several titular prelates appear, but after the Moors of Granada had been defeated in 1492, the monarchs called “Catholic” re-established this see with papal approval, appointing as its first bishop the Franciscan Garcia de Quijada, who united ancient Basti (Baza), founded in the 4th century, with G. The Cathedral, initially established in a mosque taken from the Muslims, received a Christian architectural building from 1597, entirely completed in 1799. It has a beautiful dome; the façade is a perfect example of the period’s renewed style; likewise, the artistic choir is perhaps the finest Baroque work in that region. It preserves distinguished relics, paintings by Rosales, sculptures by Ruiz del Peral and Alcudia, and several vestments from the time of Isabella the Catholic, in the purest style of the Italian Renaissance. The patron saint of the diocese is St. Torquatus. The Cathedral is dedicated to the Most Holy Annunciation.