LABASTIDA Y DAVALOS, PELAGIO ANTONIO. — Mexican prelate, born on 21 March 1817 at Zamora (diocese of Mechoacan), died in 1891 at Oacalco. He attended the Seminary of Morelia. Having obtained doctorates in law and theology from the National and Pontifical University of Mexico City, he was entrusted by the bishop of Mechoacan with the chairs of rhetoric, philosophy, canon law, and dogmatic and moral theology at the diocesan Seminary, of which he was also rector. In 1855 he was elected bishop of Puebla. For having criticized the anti-Cath-
Preconized archbishop of Mexico City on 19 March 1863, he returned to his homeland that same year and was one of the three members of the regency established after the acceptance of the Mexican imperial crown by Maximilian of Habsburg. When a conflict arose between the clergy and the French authorities occupying the country, L. withdrew from the Regency Council on 20 November and subsequently protested against the failure to repeal the earlier laws authorizing the sale of ecclesiastical property. At the invitation of Pius IX, he left Mexico in February 1867 to be present in Rome at the canonization of the Japanese martyrs. Meanwhile, Maximilian’s Empire fell and L., as a supporter of the Emperor, was again proscribed. He took part in the First Vatican Council as a member of the disciplinary commission and returned to his see in 1871.