New Pamplona, Diocese of

NEW PAMPLONA, DIOCESE. - Diocese and city in the department of Santander del Norte, in Colombia (South America).

It extends over 25,931 sq km with 646,471 inhabitants, of whom 645,960 are Catholics; it has 65 parishes served by 130 diocesan priests and 65 regulars, a conciliar seminary; 11 male religious communities and 28 female (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 293).

N. P. was founded in 1549 in the valley called that of the Holy Spirit by Pedro de Ursúa and Ortún de Velasco; from the latter it took the name of P., his native city; it was granted the title of city in 1555. In 1563 the Dominicans entered it, then the Franciscans and the Jesuits, who in 1623 founded there a college of higher studies. It was afflicted by the plague in 1633 and almost destroyed in 1644 by the earthquake, which recurred in 1875.

The diocese was created by Gregory XVI on 25 Sept. 1835 with the bull Coelesteum agricolam, declaring it a suffragan of Bogotá; the Cathedral is dedicated to St. Mary of the Snows, under the invocation of St. Peter the Apostle. The first bishop was I. J. Torres Estans, who took possession of the diocese on 30 Aug. 1837 and died in exile in Venezuela in 1853. His successors were J. Luis Nino in 1856, who also died in exile in 1864; B. A. Toscano (1865-73), who promoted the first diocesan synod; J. Barreto (1874-1875); J. A. Parra (1876-1908), also exiled during the years 1877-78; E. Blanco (1909-16), R. Afanador y Cadena from 1916. Besides the Cathedral, the churches of St. Francis, St. Dominic and St. Augustine are notable.