MAJORCA (MALLORCA), DIOCESE OF. — It comprises the island of this name and that of Cabrera in the Balearic Islands (Spain). In 1851 the see of Ibiza was united to it, but it was separated again in 1927. Its area is 4,306 sq. km.; the population is 327,119, all Catholic; there are 123 parishes; 386 diocesan priests; 158 regular clergy; there is a diocesan seminary (of St. Peter the Apostle); 37 male and 190 female religious communities (1949). The episcopal residence is in Palma de Mallorca and it is a suffragan of Valencia.
Sparse information exists regarding the early Christian history of this region, and the origins of the diocese are equally obscure. It seems, however, that in the 5th century there was a bishop who, during the Vandal domination, would have been dependent on the metropolitan see of Sardinia. At a council held in Carthage in 480, an
Helias de Maiorica
appears. The first certain news of Christianity in Majorca is a bull of Pope Romanus (A.D. 897), in which certain possessions enjoyed by the see of Gerona and its diocese in the Balearic Islands are confirmed. These islands, however, in the middle of the 11th century, were dependent on the bishop of Barcelona, as is evidenced by some curious privileges obtained by the prelate Guislaberto from the Moorish king Mugend of Denia. Since the nearby Mediterranean coasts of Catalonia suffered greatly from the raids of the Saracens from the Balearics, Raymond Berengar III, Count of Barcelona, in 1114 wished to conquer the islands for the Catholic faith; but the great military expedition, in which the Bishop of Barcelona, Raymond Guillem, died, was only partially successful; nevertheless, Pope Paschal II congratulated the count. In 1205 Innocent III promised King Peter II of Aragon that he would establish a diocesan see in Majorca after he had freed it from Muslim power, which occurred under his son James I in 1228. However, the diocese was not erected until 1238, its first bishop being Raymond of Torelles, who held a synod there in 1250 and began the construction of the cathedral. The first prelates were immediately subject to the Apostolic See, but after the erection in 1492 of the province of Valencia, Majorca was added to it as a suffragan.
The cathedral stands on the site previously occupied before 1229 by the Almudaina mosque, and in accordance with the promise made by King James before the conquest. The style is Lombard Gothic, with some modifications that enhance its beauty; the three naves are most graceful. It is the first Spanish cathedral where the canonical choir was transferred from the center to the apse and the episcopal throne to its original place. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Among the bishops are remembered Egidio Sanchez Muñoz (antipope Clement VIII) and Rodrigo Borja, the future Alexander VI. In the diocese is the Cistercian abbey of Nuestra Señora de la Real, inaugurated in 1236 by Nunio Sans (Cottineau, II, col. 1715). The patroness of the diocese is the Immaculate Conception.
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti