LEÓN, DIOCESE OF. — City and diocese in Spain, suffragan of Burgos; it covers 29,596 sq km and has 170,987 inhabitants distributed across 816 parishes served by 630 diocesan priests and 59 regular clergy; one seminary, 8 male and 43 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951).
It is the ancient Legio, though reliable records only begin in the third century; the name of its bishop Decentius appears among the attendees at the famous Synod of Elvira. During the Arab domination, once this region had quickly regained its freedom, it already had notable bishops in the ninth century, among them St Pelagius and St Froilan, the diocese’s patron saint, and in the eleventh century two others venerated as saints: Alvitus and Cyprian. At the end of the same century, in 1099, Urban II attached the diocese to the metropolitan see of Toledo, but shortly afterwards Paschal II restored its autonomy. Later, however, it became a suffragan of Burgos. The Synod of 1202 was of particular importance for ecclesiastical law in Spain, attended also by Asturian and Galician prelates. In 1237 Ferdinand I was crowned king of León and Castile. The two kingdoms, again separated, were reunited in 1230 by St Ferdinand III, from whom the reconquest of Coria and Seville proceeded. The diocese of León had fluctuating boundaries according to the fortunes of the war against the Moors. Today its territory largely coincides with the civil province of the same name, plus 62 parishes in that of Santander, 154 in Palencia, 49 in Valladolid and 18 in Zamora. The Cathedral — which houses the body of St Isidore, Doctor of the Church — is one of the most beautiful and artistic in Spain, built over ancient Roman baths whose abundant remains have recently been uncovered. Before the Visigothic period there stood in León the church of St Mary, where the Cathedral now stands; this temple was enlarged in the tenth century by King Ordoño II after León was designated capital of the kingdom, the bishop Frunnim obtaining for this work the royal palace of the baths. During the invasion of the sultan Al-Mansur the Cathedral was destroyed, but it was soon rebuilt. In this church a famous Council was held in 1202 and the Leonese kings Alfonso V and Alfonso VII, called the Emperor, were crowned. The present building was begun at the end of the twelfth century under Bishop Manrique de Lara, according to a design of sovereign beauty whose author is unknown, perhaps the master Pedro Cebrián. The plan is in the form of a Latin cross with three naves in pure Gothic style; the stained glass is among the most splendid of the period. The façade is most elegant with two towers and a marvellous portico; the cloister abounds in tombs and statues. The Archive contains precious codices, and the Cathedral Treasury holds copious relics. Also notable is the Royal Collegiate Church of St Isidore, founded at the beginning of the eleventh century by King Alfonso V, though the present church was built in the middle of the same century by King Ferdinand I and his daughter Urraca, completed some decades later. There are two seminaries in León: that of St Froilan, erected in 1606, and that of St Matthew of Valderas, in 1710. Eminent bishops of the sixteenth century include Cardinals F. Desprats, G. de Vera, L. d’Aragona and S. Merino, and the three bishops who attended the Council of Trent: Temiño, Cuesta and G. de S. Millán.
LEÓN, DIOCESE OF. — City and diocese in Nicaragua. It covers 18,225 sq km with 327,974 inhabitants, of whom 318,285 are Catholic; it has 51 parishes served by 39 diocesan priests and 26 regular clergy; one seminary, 11 male and 11 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, pp. 243-44).
The diocese was erected on 3 November 1534 under the title of Nicaragua with its seat in León, a city founded in 1523. The first bishop was Msgr Diego Alvarez. At first it appears to have been a suffragan of Mexico or Lima, but Pope Benedict XIV made it a suffragan of Guatemala. Pope Pius X, by decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation of 2 December 1913, detached the diocese of Nicaragua from the metropolitan of Guatemala, dividing it into four parts and constituting a new ecclesiastical province. The bishop of Nicaragua, whose see was in León, relinquished the title of Nicaragua to assume that of Bishop of León in Central America, the see remaining in León and becoming a suffragan of the new metropolitan see of Managua.