LEÓN, Diocese of. - City and diocese of Spain, suffragan of Burgos; it has an area of 29,596 sq km and counts 170,987 inhabitants, distributed in 816 parishes with 630 diocesan priests and 59 regulars; a seminary, 8 male communities and 43 female ones (Annuario Pontificio, 1951).
It is the ancient Legio, of which, however, there is news only in the 3rd century; the name of its bishop Decentius is found among the assistants at the famous Synod of Elvira. During the Arab domination, since this region had very early won its freedom, it already had valiant bishops in the 9th century, among them St. Pelagius and St. Froilan, who is the patron of the diocese, and in the 11th century two others, venerated as saints: Alvitus and Cyprian. At the end of that same century, that is in 1099, Urban II attached the diocese to the metropolitan see of Toledo but, shortly afterward, Paschal II restored its autonomy. Later, however, it was a suffragan of Burgos. Of particular importance for ecclesiastical law in Spain was the Synod of 1020, at which the Asturian and Galician prelates were also present. In 1037 Ferdinand I was crowned king of L. and of Castile. The two kingdoms, separated again, were united in 1230 by St. Ferdinand III, who from there set out for the conquest of Cordoba and Seville. The diocese of L. had fluctuating boundaries depending on the course of the war against the Moors. Today its territory coincides for the most part with the civil province of the same name, plus 62 parishes that it has in that of Santander, 154 in Palencia, 49 in Valladolid and 18 in Zamora. The Cathedral - in which the body of St. Isidore, Doctor of the Church, is venerated - is one of the most beautiful and artistic in Spain, built over ancient Roman baths, of which abundant remains have recently been discovered. Before the Visigothic domination, there was at L. the church of St. Mary, where today the Cathedral stands; this temple was enlarged in the 10th century through the work of King Ordoño II, after the designation of L. as capital of the Kingdom, the bishop Frunimius having obtained the royal Palace of the baths for this work. In the invasion of the sultan Almanzor the Cathedral was destroyed, but it is found rebuilt shortly afterward. In this temple a famous Council was celebrated in 1020 and the Leonese kings Alfonso V and Alfonso VII, called the Emperor, were crowned. The present building was begun at the end of the 12th century, under the bishop Manrique of Lara, according to a design of sovereign beauty, whose author is unknown, perhaps the master Pedro Cebrian. The plan is a Latin cross with three naves of pure Gothic; the stained-glass windows are among the most splendid of the period. The facade is most elegant with two towers and a marvelous portico; in the cloister tombs and statues abound. The Archive contains precious codices, and abundant relics are found in the Treasury of the Cathedral. Also notable is the Royal Collegiate Church of St. Isidore, founded at the beginning of the 11th century by King Alfonso V, but the present temple was built in the middle of that same century by King Ferdinand I, and by his daughter Urraca, and finished some decades later. There are two seminaries at L.: that of St. Froilan, erected in 1606, and that of St. Matthew of Valderas, in 1710. Famous bishops in the 16th century: the cardinals F. Desprats, G. de Vera, L. d'Aragona and S. Merino, and the three bishops who assisted at the Council of Trent: Temiño, Cuesta and G. de S. Millán.