MADRID, Diocese of. - Diocese and capital city of Spain.
The diocese has an area of 7,988.75 sq. km. with a population of 1,909,003 inhabitants, of whom 1,901,503 are Catholics; it has 28 parishes, 936 diocesan priests and 752 regulars; two seminaries; 91 male religious communities and 360 female (Annuario Pont., 1951, p. 259).
The city of M. had little importance until in the 16th century it was chosen as the natural and permanent residence of the Spanish monarchy, being the geographical center of the peninsula. Until then it belonged ecclesiastically to the archbishopric of Toledo, and only with the Concordat of 1851 did the project of the Madrid diocese prevail, which nevertheless was not erected until 1885, that is, after the bull of Leo XIII of 7 March of the same year. In memory of the ancient and vanished Complutense diocese, the name of Alcalá was added to that of M., since that territory is included in the new diocese, which embraces the entire central civil province. The first bishop, Narciso Martínez Izquierdo, fell victim to an attack on 12 April 1886 in the provisional cathedral of St. Isidore the Farmer, patron of the city, which still serves as the episcopal church, since that of St. Mary de la Almudena is not finished; it was begun in 1881 under the Toledan archbishop Cardinal Moreno, and its crypt has been open for worship since 1911. In the present Cathedral, built in the 16th century for the Society of Jesus, are preserved the incorrupt body of St. Isidore the Farmer and that of his wife St. Maria de la Cabeza; there were also buried the theologian Laynez and the mystic Nieremberg. At Alcalá, already the seat of the famous Complutense University, one admires the beautiful collegiate church of Sts. Justus and Pastor, built in 1136, rebuilt in 1497 by Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros.
The diocese is a suffragan of Toledo; its patrons are St. Ildefonso and St. Isidore.
Within the diocese is the monastery of the Escorial (v.). Among the numerous centers of instruction erected by the Church, mention is made of the Catholic Institute of Arts and Industries, founded by the Jesuit Father Pérez del Pulgar, which grants degrees in electromechanical engineering that have recently been given parity. Prompt activity on the part of Catholic organizations provides for the moral and material needs of the suburbs. - See plate CXXI.
