NAVARRE. - A historical region of Spain, roughly corresponding to the present-day Spanish province of the same name, together with the addition of French Lower Navarre. According to tradition, Navarre was evangelized by St. Firminus, a disciple of St. Saturninus, bishop of Toulouse, in the 3rd century. A bishop of Pamplona (formerly Pampilo), named Liliolus, presided over the Third Council of Toledo (589). Navarre enters history when, around 866, it was constituted as a kingdom. Sancho III the Great (995-1035), a protector of the monasticism of Cluny, united under his rule all the states of Christian Spain with the exception of Galicia and Catalonia: but at his death the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon broke away; the latter then returned to the union from 1076 to 1134. In 1234, on the death of Sancho VII the Strong, one of the victors at the battle of Las Navas (1212), the Navarrese proclaimed as king Theobald I, count of Champagne, thus inaugurating the French dynasties. Ferdinand the Catholic took from Joan of Albret in 1512 the part of Navarre situated below the Pyrenees, while the part lying to the north was incorporated into the crown of France from 1607.

Of the ancient regional laws, however, a relic is the special regime of the Pueros, ratified in 1841, which entails certain privileges and a certain administrative autonomy. The Navarrese people, of firm religious faith and much attached to their traditions, have given to the Church St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Vincenza Maria López y Vicuña. The number of religious vocations in Navarre today is very notable. The diocese of Pamplona (v.) comprises the greater part of Navarre. But there also exists some part of the territory belonging to the dioceses of Tudela-Tarazona, Calahorra, Saragossa and Jaca.

During the dynastic struggles of the last century Navarre sided with the Carlists.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: P. Moret, Anales del Reino de N., Pamplona 1766; N. Lando, Basques et Navarrats, Paris 1878; G. Fernández Pérez, Historia de la Iglesia y obispado de Pamplona, Pamplona 1920; J. Zunzunegui, El Reino de N. y su obispado de Pamplona durante la primera época del Cisma de Occidente, San Sebastián 1942; A. Pérez Goyena, La santidad en N., Pamplona 1947; Ensayo de bibliografía de N. desde la creación de la imprenta en Pamplona hasta el año 1910, 2 vols., Burgos 1947-49.

Tirso Arellano

@incollection{ec8_navarra, author = {Arellano, Tirso}, title = {Navarra}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1695--1696}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/navarra} }

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