NUOVA PAMPLONA, DIOCESI di. - Diocese and city in the department of Santander del Norte, 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 and 65 regular priests, one seminary; 11 male and 28 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 293).
N. P. was founded in 1549 in the valley called that of the Holy Spirit by Pietro de Ursine y Ortim de Velasco; from him it received the name of P., his native city; it was granted the title of city in 1555. The Dominicans entered it in 1563, followed by the Franciscans and the Jesuits, who founded a college of higher studies there in 1623. It was afflicted by plague in 1633 and almost destroyed in 1644 by an earthquake, which recurred in 1875.
The diocese was created by Gregorio XVI on 25 Sept. 1835 by the bull Coelesteum agricolam, and declared a suffragan of Bogotá; the Cathedral is dedicated to S. Maria della Neve, 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, likewise dead in exile in 1864; B. A. Toscano (1865-73), who promoted the first diocesan synod; J. Barreto (1874-1875); J. A. Parra (1876-1908), likewise exiled during the years 1877-78; E. Blanco (1909-16), and R. Afanador y Cadena from 1916. Besides the Cathedral, the churches of S. Francesco, S. Domenico, and S. Agostino are noteworthy.