MONDOÑEDO, DIOCESI di. – Spanish city and diocese at the extreme western end of the Cantabrian coast, in the civil provinces of Lugo and La Coruña. It covers 4369 sq. km., with 321,400 inhabitants, of whom 320,750 are Catholics. It has 401 parishes, with 345 diocesan priests and 42 religious priests, and one seminary. Religious communities: 7 male and 28 female.
Its origin dates back to the 6th century, according to some writers, who supposed it to have been governed for a long time by the abbots of Dumio, among whom the first, St. Martin, and the sixth, St. Fructuosus, are especially renowned; they also governed the diocese of Braga. More reliable information is available from the 9th century onward; the diocese changed its see and also its name several times, most recently in 1114, when, by virtue of the decree of the Council of Palencia, confirmed by Pope Paschal II, it was transferred to Vallibria, later called M. Nevertheless, the prelates Rabinato, at the end of the 12th century, and Pelagius II, his successor, resided at Ribadeo. Among the most illustrious bishops are cited, besides the diocese’s patron, St. Rosendo, founder of the monastery of Celanova, and Gonzalo, called the Saint in the 10th century; the historian Nuño Alonso in the 11th century; Martino, builder and doctor of the present cathedral in the 13th century; Enriquez de Castro, to whom the old cloister of that church is owed in the 15th century; Cardinal Pacheco; the famous Franciscan writer Antonio di Guevara; and Antonio de Lujan, also a Franciscan, in the 16th century; the Trinitarian Diaz di Cabrera, intrepid defender of the diocese against the Protestant English, and Torres Grijalba in the 17th century; Muñoz Salcedo, builder, among other things, of the cathedral towers; and Sarmiento de Sotomayor, to whom the sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies and the city hospital are owed; Riomol Quiroga, restorer of the episcopal palace; and Losada, who erected the present seminary, enlarged in the 19th century by Bishop Cos y Macho.
The present Cathedral, dedicated to the Annunciation of Mary Most Holy, was built in the 13th century with the help of King Alfonso IX; it displays the transitional style from Romanesque to Gothic, while only the reliefs of the façade and the towers show rather the dominance of the Baroque style of the 17th century.